The modern pinisiq did not exist until the late nineteenth century. The ships of seventeenth-century Sulawesi, called padéwakang in Bugis, aligned with the general design of Javanese jong and other Southeast Asian watercraft. I'm not very good with nautical technology in general, but like most of their neighbors' ships, the padéwakang were built by joining wooden planks together, had a crescent moon-shaped curved hull, used two quarter-rudders fixed in position by a sort of transverse bench and not the axial stern-post rudder of Chinese and European vessels, and sailed under fore-and-rift rigs bearing oblique sails called tanjaq.

The padéwakang are traditionally classified into narrower "long-hull" and broader "short-hull" types, the former including the bintaq, a warship with rowers favored by pirates and raiders, and an unusually fast boat called a palari. The latter included the banawa, a cattle-transporting ship, the pappalimbang or ferry-boat, and a fishing boat called the pajala.

The sompeq pinisiq ketch rig is the product of a nineteenth-century adoption of European sailing technology. The design of South Sulawesi ships changed drastically that century, and the ketch rig was only one part of the process. The transformation of the padéwakang began with the introduction of Western-style jibs and bowspirits in the 1830s and 1840s and proceeded with the replacement of oblique tanjaq sails by Western gaff sails. Tackle and topsails were introduced somewhat later, and the traditional tripod mast design was abandoned for the one or two masts towards the back.

The typical South Sulawesi warships of the seventeenth century were extensions of the padéwakang model. As I mention here, South Sulawesi kingdoms had no real standing armies besides a small elite retinue, and things were similar for most of the fleet. Indeed, when Gowa-Talloq attacked the Portuguese in Timor in 1641, the court simply ordered a community of carpenters to build forty junks in forty days to transport the troops. Forty such ships could easily have transported some four thousand troops; in 1643, 31,340 prisoners of war were transported over a mere 316 Gowa ships.

Like most Southeast Asian warships, such vessels proved hard-pressed to defeat Dutch East India Company vessels.

But the most notable thing about the fleet of seventeenth-century Gowa-Talloq was its use of war galleys. Galleys are, of course, traditionally Mediterranean, but the early seventeenth-century chancellor Karaeng Matoaya (reigned 1593-1623) pioneered their use as part of a wider program to strengthen the country by adopting foreign innovations. The seventeenth-century Talloq Chronicle says:

He was the karaeng [lord] who erected stone walls and irrigation works, strengthened the masts of cargo vessels, added sleeves to sailor’s jackets, and first had people who built royal warships. It was he who first had masts of Makassarese ships attached with iron spikes and first had Makassarese who knew how to build galleys. [nauru mangasseng Mangkasaraka mappareq galleq]

The word galleq "galley" clearly comes from Portuguese galé (the Makassar word galleq is pronounced /galleʔ/, the 'q' standing for a glottal stop). And indeed, the Makassar Annals state that as late as March 23, 1623, the galley was seen as a "Portuguese ship" (biseang Paranggi):

The Portuguese ship known as a galley raced [nanilumba jalleaya biseang Paranggi nikana]

Gowa-Talloq appears to have had a standing fleet of these war galleys, armed with small cannons, and specific names of ships appear in our sources. In October 27, 1640, when Sultan Malikussaid of Gowa attacked Walinrang, he took the war galley I Galleq I Nyannyiq Sangguq, thirty meters long and six meters wide with more than two hundred rowers, "all young noble sons of princes or vassal lords." During the Timorese expedition in 1640, the Gowa-Talloq fleet was led by the war galley I Galleq Mangking Naiya of similar size, this time manned by 400 rowers. There were even larger galleys; I Galleq Dondona Ralle Campaga was forty meters long.

Sources:

• L'expansion du royaume de Goa et sa politique maritime aux XVIe et XVIIe siècles, by La Side' Daéng Tapala

• Bugis Prahus: The Konjo Boatbuilders and the Bugis Prahus of South Sulawesi, by Adrian Horridge