Ever wonder how ancient Polynesians

[pwd72s]

Navigated vast stretches of the Pacific, island hopping, without charts, compass, timepiece, or sextant? Found an article that explains it. Sort of a long read, but a fascinating one.

https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1586/polynesian-navigation--settlement-of-the-pacific/

The Pacific Ocean is one-third of the earth’s surface and its remote islands were the last to be reached by humans. These islands are scattered across an ocean that covers 165.25 million square kilometres (63.8 million square miles). The ancestors of the Polynesians, the Lapita people, set out from Taiwan and settled Remote Oceania between 1100-900 BCE, although there is evidence of Lapita settlements in the Bismarck Archipelago as early as 2000 BCE. The Lapita and their ancestors were skilled seafarers who memorised navigational instructions and passed their knowledge down through folklore, cultural heroes, and simple oral stories.

[masraum]

British-born New Zealand physician and adventurer David Lewis (1917-2002 CE), in his book We, The Navigators, sets out in detail the traditional indigenous navigation methods he used on his 1965 CE voyage in a catamaran or waka katea (double canoe) from Tahiti to Aotearoa. Using no modern instruments such as a compass, chronometer, sextant, or radio, he sailed 3603 kilometres (2239 miles) and made landfall with an error rate of only 41 kilometres (26 miles).

The reason that he used a double canoe was that he needed an extra boat to take his nuts due to their size.

I understand that the main reason for the Pacific islanders' extensive exploration was an attempt to find large flat sources of slate on which to play a game that they enjoyed that used a long narrow stick and several round stones where you try to get the stones into the corners of a rectangular table.

And that explains how it is that Paul stumbled across this fascinating article.
just ribbin' ya, old fella. Cool article, thanks for posting.

[pwd72s]

^ LOL...good one.

Another amazing ocean crossing I read about was about some fool with no sailing know how who sailed from California to Hawaii in an old lifeboat rigged with sails. For navigation gear he had a hand compass and an old high school library Atlas. Asked how he found Hawaii, he said: "I followed the airplanes". Must have had a guardian angel to have survived.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by pwd72s

^ LOL...good one.

Another amazing ocean crossing I read about was about some fool with no sailing know how who sailed from California to Hawaii in an old lifeboat rigged with sails. For navigation gear he had a hand compass and an old high school library Atlas. Asked how he found Hawaii, he said: "I followed the airplanes". Must have had a guardian angel to have survived.

fortuna favet fatuis - fortune favors fools.

[Seahawk]

Read this:

[pwd72s]

I always thought it was the invention of an accurate clock that solved the difficulty of calculating longitude.

[craigster59]

I read the book "Kon-Tiki" years ago about Thor Heyerdahl's recreation of a cross Pacific journey from Peru to the Polynesian Islands.

They made an Academy Award winning documentary about the 1947 expedition, haven't seen it but they did a film in 2013...

[Steve Carlton]

I saw a documentary about the HMS Bounty stopping by Tahiti... NSFW

[pwd72s]

KonTiki...He was trying to prove his theory that ancient Polynesians descended from South America indigenous people. Evidently his theory was wrong, according to DNA evidence, obviously not available in '47.

[WPOZZZ]

Mau Piailug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Piailug

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

Mau Piailug. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Piailug

An amazing life story in it's own right. When it came to navigating, a Polynesian navigator made Columbus look like an amateur. To read all the signs of the sea, to know countless star positions...just...wow!

[WPOZZZ]

Papa Mau brought about the renaissance of celestial navigation, starting with the voyage of the Hokule'a in 1976.

[pwd72s]

Originally Posted by WPOZZZ

Papa Mau brought about the renaissance of celestial navigation, starting with the voyage of the Hokule'a in 1976.

An absolutely amazing man...and to think, his knowledge was almost lost to mankind.
This illustrates what a precious, yet fragile, thing knowledge can be.

[LWJ]

Funny. I have thought about this. And I expect that there were significant losses at sea. As in maybe over 70%? Considering that many of the trips were to places that were unknown, it is truly a needle in a haystack statistic. Go on the big ocean and hope for land.

The motivation to leave must have been life or death.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Funny. I have thought about this. And I expect that there were significant losses at sea. As in maybe over 70%? Considering that many of the trips were to places that were unknown, it is truly a needle in a haystack statistic. Go on the big ocean and hope for land.

The motivation to leave must have been life or death.

I've wondered about the same. It would probably depend upon the level of caution, level of planning and expertise, and then, probably the biggest issue, the weather.

I suspect that most of the time, the caution, planning, and expertise levels were probably pretty high. THere were probably some folks with wanderlust that were willing to do whatever, safety be damned. I assume that voyages were probably made where folks planned to travel for 10 days or weeks or whatever, and they travelled out for half of that time and then turned around and went back. I suspect the ancients were far more competent and knowledgeable than they often get credit for.

I'd be super curious to see what their ocean going boats were like, size and build. I imagine them being relatively small compared to the kind of stuff used by Europeans, and have a hard time imagining using them for deep ocean travel.

[RNajarian]

Originally Posted by Seahawk

Read this:

I’m very close friends with the author’s brother Steve. I helped them promote the book when it first came out in 1995.

Fantastic read! Her other books are equally riveting.

[Flatbutt1]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

I saw a documentary about the HMS Bounty stopping by Tahiti... NSFW

What makes me wonder is how the women make their hips do THAT?

[red-beard]

One thing not considered is this:



There were a lot more islands and they were closer together. England was part of Europe. Australia connected with the main land and Siberia and Alaska were connected by a vast plain.

[john70t]

Magellan-Elcano, Amerigo Vespucci, James Cook, Erik the Red, Zheng He,
On land Shackleton, Lewis/Clarke, Marco Polo, Vikings and Mongols

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by RNajarian

I’m very close friends with the author’s brother Steve. I helped them promote the book when it first came out in 1995.

Fantastic read! Her other books are equally riveting.

How cool!!

She is excellent. Two other books of hers I have read: