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Polynesians - The Best Navigators

Rene Thompson - 02/08/2012

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The ancient Polynesians were some of the worlds best navigators. They were able to travel all across the Pacific Ocean in small and primitive vessels, sailing great distances between islands and finding their way home, as well as discovering new islands. For example, many researchers believe that they were the first to settle the island chain we now know as Hawaii, as well as Easter Island and New Zealand, though these islands are separated by an expansive ocean.

These early Polynesian people were able to do this with no modern instruments or technology. Even today what they were able to accomplish in simple vessels requires an experienced sailor. What they could accomplish is nothing short of miraculous. The big question is how did the ancient Polynesians navigate the seas?

While some assume that the Polynesians must have developed one scientifically innovative navigational tool that allowed them to navigate the seas. However, their renowned navigational skills were actually supported not by a single method, but a mixture of many navigational tools that allowed them to accomplish this feat.

Historians believe that ancient Polynesians passed down their navigational abilities from generation to generation primarily by word of mouth. They are believed to have memorized the position of the stars in order to navigate, and it is known that the Polynesians had names for at least 150 stars. This is just a very small part of their abilities, however. Successfully navigating the open seas requires much more than an ability to determine their location accurately.

Ancient Polynesians also memorized the weather, knew when the sun would appear and set at certain times of the year in different locations, local wildlife, travel time, currents for the time of the year, ocean currents and swells, and many other things that most of us do not even think about or notice. It is also believed that navigators in some areas of Polynesia, particularly in the Marshall Islands, created maps known as 'stick charts' with seashells and sticks to mark the directions of currents. It was not one thing but many things that allowed them to navigate the great distance between the islands of Polynesia.

Many of these practices were actually quite secretive. Each island in Polynesia once had its own guild of navigators. These people held very high status in the community, given the essential uses for their knowledge.

To this day, some of their descendants still use some of the same techniques that their ancestors have used for centuries. However, other abilities have been lost to time as they fell out of use following contact with Europeans. Because few of these practices were ever written down, our knowledge comes from modern-day navigation as well as observations by the few Europeans to pass through the islands centuries ago.

Researchers continue to uncover more about the practices of ancient Polynesians. For instance, it is not believed that the Polynesians made it all the way to the Americas prior to the famous voyage of Columbus in 1492. Since the 1960s, several research teams have conducted sailing experiments using the techniques and canoe styles they believe the ancient Polynesians would have used.