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I can't imagine how the polynesians discovered Hawaii. Sailing thousands of miles in a small wooden boat and finding a speck of land in the pacific ocean.
by srj 3y ago
I can't imagine how the polynesians discovered Hawaii. Sailing thousands of miles in a small wooden boat and finding a speck of land in the pacific ocean.
- wpietri 3y agoPolynesian navigational techniques are very interesting: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_navigation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polynesian_navigation
- kqr 3y agoThe power of oral tradition is nuts. It can preserve information for thousands of years.
- twic 3y agoSpeaking of Polynesian navigation being nuts: https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/testicular-navigation https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/testicular-navigation
- dehrmann 3y agoTo what extent were they good at navigating, and to what extent is there a survivorship bias?
- btilly 3y agoThis came up in a college course I took. Traditional Polynesian boats were operating alongside modern technology in the 1950s and 1969s. The Polynesian boats put up a better safety record! So yeah, they really were good at navigating. And to think, they did it lying on their back! The cues that they were using were from the swell, the stars, and birds. You feel the swell most clearly lying down. The other two are above you.
- asdfman123 3y agoApparently they could sink their double-hulled canoes into the water a little if storms hit so they didn’t get the full brunt of the waves.