Pacific Seafaring

Few subjects captured the imagination of early European explorers more than the seafaring exploits of Pacific islanders. In 1768, the French explorer, Bougainville, dubbed Samoa “The Navigators' Islands,” and the British captain, James Cook, noted that Polynesian canoes were often as fast and maneuverable as his ships. Subsequent commentators, particularly within the anthropological community, have retained their predecessors' fascination.

Western views of oceanic seafaring abilities have shifted several times. Through the mid-20th century, indigenous traditions of voyaging, exploration, migration, and settlement were taken quite literally. In1957, Andrew Sharp argued that, unless aided by instruments, human beings couldn't navigate successfully over long distances. Therefore, colonization of new islands was almost certainly the result of accidental drift voyages by sailors blown off course or forced, against their will, out to sea.

Source: Copyright © Aska and David Krantz. http://www.askadavid.org

Sharp's conclusions were challenged by the pioneering ethnographic work of Thomas Gladwin (1970) on Puluwat in Micronesia and David Lewis's more wide-ranging survey. They and others have documented voyages of hundreds of miles with accuracy comparable to that of Western mariners aided by modern instruments, and they carefully described indigenous navigational techniques.

A second line of evidence casting doubt on Sharp's drift voyage argument is provided by the direction of settlement: from west to east, against the prevailing winds. Computer simulations comparing winds and currents with the geographical and cultural relationships of various islands and archipelagoes have demonstrated that oceanic exploration and settlement could not have been a result of accidental drift, but must have eventuated primarily from purposeful voyaging by skilled navigators.

The final line of evidence supporting the proficiency of oceanic navigators comes from experimental voyages with replicas of traditional canoes, using traditional navigational techniques. Hōku-le'a, a performance-accurate replica of a Hawaiian double-hulled voyaging canoe, built with modern materials but to traditional design, was sailed successfully through almost all of Polynesia. In the aftermath of Hōku-le'a's success, other voyaging canoes were built in the Cook Islands of Aotearoa (New Zealand), and elsewhere in Polynesia. In 1993, the Hawaiian Voyaging Society launchedHawai'iloa, a voyaging canoe constructed out of natural materials. Hawai'iloa, like its predecessors, has now logged thousands of miles of deep-sea inter-island travel. Meanwhile, many indigenous [Page 1799]communities are working to revive their seafaring heritage. Noteworthy in this regard are the efforts of the Vaka Taumako Project in the eastern Solomon Islands.