Forgot to mention that sometimes animals were towed - very tiring work. Even in Greenland smaller seals were carried on the rear deck .

: After a kill was made you had to get the meat home... that is usually the
: hard part of hunting . The entire animal of parts thereof were carried
: either on the deck or inside the kayak and sometimes this load would be
: several hundred pounds.

: One only has to look at the Eastern arctic Inuit kayaks to see that they were
: designed for long distance transport in big seas. Some of their single man
: craft were up to 27 feet long and 27" wide with a carrying capacity
: of well over a thousand pounds. These hunting/cargo haulers usually
: carried a large part of their load on the rear deck but a fair portion
: could be carried belows decks as well.

: In Alaskan waters there were deep kayaks which carried the load inside the
: kayak and there you will see large cockpit openings to make this easier.

: With modern kayaks there is no doubt that having a kayak with hatches is
: potentially safer than one without - but one must practice self-rescues in
: rough conditions to bring out the potential benefit.