The Polynesian Navigators

[?] Ars And Islands

The Polynesian Navigators Followed a Unique Plan

About 1,000 BC the present inhabitants of Polynesia and Micronesia left the islands of south-east Asia, perhaps under pressure from other tribal groups, and struck out for new homes in the broad expanse of the south-west Pacific.

j E are reasonably certain that ' south-east Asia was the point of departure rather than the lericas, as some recent theories /e stated, for all the Oceanic >ple have the traditions of their fient home in the west which s known as Hawaiki, The words Hawaii and Savaii imoa), as well as the names for ny other Polynesian islands, are ived from Hawaiki.

Jthough the Polynesians grew no j, they tell of another legendary im e, “Great-Atea-covered-with- Rise is a principal crop in th-east Asia. There are cultural i linguistic parallels between the ynesians and the Indonesians, leed, the evidence is impressive, ’he important thing to be con ered here, however, is not the ?in of the Micronesians and ynesians, but rather the almost believable feat they accomplished reaching islands in all parts of south-west Pacific.

THE progenitors of the modern Polynesians and Micronesians left their homeland in great sea canoes with built-up, adze-hewn, plank sides.

Some of the canoes were single hulled craft with outriggers while others were double-hulled craft with deckhouses built on the spars con necting the two hulls.

The pandanus mat sails were sup plemented by crews of paddlers often numbering as many as one hundred men. Specialists baled, trimmed sails, served as coxswains, and navigated.

The vessels were capable of un usual speed and were thoroughly seaworthy when handled by expert seamen, as these people undoubtedly were. As testimony of the excellence of these sailing vessels one has only to point to the voyage of de Bisschop. In 1935, this French amateur sailor built a vessel of native design and sailed her, with a crew of one, from Polynesia to

France by way of the Cape of Good Hope.

Some of the canoes of the early migrants reached Samoa, the Societies, and the Cooks, and these islands are believed to have been swarming-points for further colon isation expeditions.

Other groups of these extra ordinary mariners explored the Micronesian islands of the Marshalls, Carolines, Gilberts, and others, establishing settlements as they went.

A MERE glance at any map of the Pacific brings a feeling of awe for the exploits of these bronzed

Lowell Don Holmes, writer of the accompanying article, completed a year’s anthro pological research in Eastern Samoa late in 1954. His re search was sponsored by the University of Hawaii. Mr.

Holmes, who is 29 years of age, is a Doctoral Candidate in Anthropology at present associated with North Western University, Evanston, Illinois.

His article on the South Seas science of navigation, dealing with Polynesia and Micro nesia, will be published in three parts, of which this is the first.

Vikings. There are 2,700 reef-in fested miles from the Societies to Hawaii; 2,500 from the Societies to

New Zealand: and 2,600 miles from Samoa to Hawaii. Yet all these routes were frequently travelled.

Such voyages required a consider able degree of accuracy in naviga tion, for an error of a few degrees in a compass course can cause one to miss a tiny Pacific island by hundreds of miles in a voyage of 2,000 miles or over.

Yet these early ships carried neither compass, nor sextant, nautical almanac nor chronometer.

The early methods of Polynesian and Micronesian navigation stand as the most fascinating and awe inspiring phenomenon in the annals of seamanship.

The most common method of navigation in Polynesia consisted of laying a direct course to a given destination by keeping the bow of the vessel pointed toward a star near the horizon which lay in the direction of the desired destination.

However, the poetic references to the native navigators steering by the stars often gives an erroneous picture, for anyone who is at all acquainted with the movements of the stars would quickly realise that due to the earth’s rotation, such a method would keep one sailing in circles.

INSTEAD of taking one star and following it, they viewed the stars as moving bands of light, which passed over the destination they were interested in.

The navigators can identify all

the stars that are in the band and steer by each star in turn before it rises too high or sets on the horizon.

The Hawaiian scholar, Kepelino, characterised the stars used in navigation as “those which are suspended in turn over each island.”

The navigator proceeding north may use the same principle of these bands of light.

The Polynesians discoverec through long observation that anj star that passes directly over anj island must a'so pass over othei points of the same latitude. Thus;

he prevailing wind made it im sible to sail directly to an island, y would sail north until a certain • was directly overhead and then due east or west, depending on position of the desired destina i. a one way, the native method aying a course to a given destina i was superior to that used by navigators to-day. Using stars beacons toward which to steer ;s the shortest distance possible ween two points. In other words, fives a great circle course which using a compass, may accom h only by altering our compass rse at given intervals.

'he natives of Polynesia con ned the heavens as the inside of oconut shell or pot which rotated iut them. The stars were seen rise in the east of this dome and in the west, and they noticed t these stars always appeared in same relationship to one another, 'heir observation was so thorough it they realised that the stars >eared four minutes earlier each ht, and in the course of a year ,t the stars rise at exactly the le time as they did on the same j a year before. Astronomical >wledge even included the realisa a that star time gained one day sun time every year.

HE natives of Micronesia were also not lacking in ability as astronomers and navigators, n the Gilbert Islands, the cou rt of the universe is somewhat ferent from that of Polynesia. the Micronesian navigator, the iverse is conceived as a great roof Dported by imaginary rafters, •ee on the east slope and three the west. rhe apex of the middle pair is iposed to be the point where the r Rigel crosses the Gilbert iridian. The apex of the northern ir is where Pleiades crosses the iridian, and the southern apex is .ere Antares crosses. The ridge le of the house represents the ridian and the lower edge of the )f represents the horizon. The )f is truly thatched with ever >ving stars. rhe stars did more than act as aeons toward which to steer, teir points of rising and setting the horizon gave the navigator the Carolines of Micronesia a npass (so Professor Goodenough s pointed out in a recent article the Scientific Monthly).

This compass has 32 points with nr cardinal points derived from e North Star, the Southern Cross an upright position, the rising Altair, and the setting of Altair; e declination of Altair corre onds approximately with the htude of the Carolines.

The positions of rise and set of her stars such as Cassiopeiae, ;ga, Pleiades, Antares, etc., give e other points of the compass, iring the day, the navigator would

orient himself by the direction of the ore vailing wind blowing at that nartFcular Ume of the yelr. The Savigators of the Society Islands had a similar compass based on the same method, but theirs contained only sixteen points. During the day, the Society Island navigators utilised the knowledge of the sun’s position in relation to their destmation at a given hour. This use of the sun’s position has not been reported for Micronesia. rno return again to the use of

1 stale S dtoa^S S were“tely

associated with the islands they

passed over. The stars, therefore, were given the name of that par~ ticular island. For example, the native navigator at any time of the night could point out all the Tongareva stars or all the Rapa stars.

It is difficult to visualise exactly how the sailing directions to a newly discovered island were de termined, but since discovery was usually made by sailing in a direct line, rather than wandering about, it is seen to be quite possible to return to the same spot once again by following definite stars. (To be continued)