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Micronesians say that to talk of their navigational skills is taboo. “Our knowledge will die with our old men”, they vow.

But when Mr. Val Andersen, former Gilbert and Ellice Islands’ Resident Commissioner was doing a recent swing around the Gilberts, he met an oldtimer, Te lotiebata, who told a few navigational secrets.

The old man, a Gilbertese, said he was able to know exactly where he was without sextant and charts, because, when observed from land, all clouds and stars appeared over the horizon eastwards and travelling skywards. The opposite happened when clouds and stars were seen from ships. When this happened a big whirling movement in the sea was created, only discernible to experts. Capt. Brett Hilder, no mean navigator himself, here comments.