- MD
Sidestep: Why Polynesians never discovered Lord Howe Island?
I have long wondered why Polynesians did not settle on Lord Howe Island. There is no Polynesian name for this island. It was purely a European discovery. There is no record of Polynesian midden or artefact. If they had visited even once, they would have inhabited it as it is perfect for human settlement. One thing I found interesting was that there was a white swamp hen first seen when the first humans (Europeans) visited which blows the theory that the Pukeko was an introduced bird to NZ as it appears it was all over the Pacific from Australia to Peru.
We know that 1000-1500 years ago the Polynesians became prolific travellers and explorers rather than accidental discovers. There was a time when widespread travel was apparent (time of the Lapita people) and then fell dormant for quite some time before a resurgence (Ah ha, the movie Moana was true then?)
But if they were truly prolific explorers how did they miss this island? We have seen they reached all the Pacific Islands, even Norfolk and Pitcairn. Pitcairn!!!!! So why was this one missed? Is there something about ocean travel that we have overlooked? Mind you they didn't reach Australia either unless one waka did and they were slaughtered by the Aborigines - but that would be suggestive at best wouldn't it?
We want to examine the methods of primitive navigation and how that evolved into being expert navigators. We will use some modern observations in this examination using an article by Captain Brett Hilder written in 1962. All of this is based on traditional navigation methods - not GPS or Satellite assistance. We also stress that this was written before any attempts had been made to duplicate the feat.
*****
AIMING FOR AN ISLAND
When an island is small it is visible at only eleven miles from a ship's bridge, and less from a canoe masthead. If it’s exact position is known, it can usually be found by steering the correct course, with allowance wind and ocean current, providing that the distance does not exceed 100 miles from a known departure point.
With canoes the main cause of failure is variation in ocean currents, which are unpredictable and suffer from daily variations. Even with modern vessels, only the mean current can be shown on charts, and when this is allowed for, the only way it can be checked is by the fixing of the vessel's position by bearings of known landmarks, or by astronomical sights.
An Actual example:
To the east of the Solomon Islands are the Polynesian outliers of Sikaiana and Ongtong Java . They are both low atolls, and each is about 120 miles from the usual departure points on the large islands of Ysabel and Malaita. The small vessels which attempt to visit these atolls are, as often as not, unable to find them. The method of navigation used is to depart at dusk on a course set by tradition with corrections for the weather at the time. If the south east trade is blowing strongly, it is assumed that the ocean current, which is largely due to the wind, is stronger than usual. With speeds of up to ten knots, the island should be reached during the morning. At dawn lookouts are posted to raise the land, or rather the tops of the coconut palms. By noon the vessel will start a search for the elusive island, and if it has not been found by dusk, the vessel returns to the starting point near Ysabel or Malaita to make another attempt.
The course to Sikaiana is about ESE from the northern end of Malaita, while the course to Ongtong Java from the coast of Ysabel is about NE. This means that the track to Sikaiana is more or less into the prevailing wind and current, while that to Lord Howe is across the wind and current. For this reason Sikaiana is found more easily than Lord Howe, for the vessels are not carried off track so easily, though their speed may be more uncertain. Variation in speed is not as important as a drift off track, for the time of arrival is so much less important than the chance of missing the target by sailing past it just out of sight. These examples of European vessels, power-driven and fitted with compasses, are given to show the basic problem with a known base to which they can easily return. With canoes under sail and paddle, without compasses, and with home bases just as elusive as their target islands, the problem becomes much more open to failure. Polynesian navigation to isolated, small, low islands was most probably restricted to distances under 100 miles.
It is known that at least from the time of Cook, natives used the stars. Not all the stars are visible during any one night of the year, and only half the stars can be visible at any moment. The stars rise four minutes earlier each night, or two hours earlier each month. This led to the use of certain stars at certain times of the year, which fitted in with prevailing winds and any system of annual trading voyages to other íslands.
The navigator of a canoe would have to learn which stars to steer by at each successive hour of the night, for each star changes bearing as it rises towards the meridian and as it sets towards the western horizon. When the stars were obscured, the relative direction of the relevant wind would have to be used. During the hours of daylight, the bearing of the sun would be a check on whether the wind had backed or veered in direction, and at the same time, for the whole length of the voyage, the leeway would have to be corrected when the wind varied in force. The steering of a reasonably good course was a possibility for the Polynesians as well as being quite probable. When their target was a large mountainous island, or chain of islands, they would have a good chance of reaching it even after a voyage of 1,000 miles. But first they would have to be given the true course to steer, by forerunners who had built up knowledge by successful voyages over the same track. This is highly improbable, nor is there any real evidence that it was ever done. The legends of the Maoris give three different versions of the course given by Kupe to the Fleet navigators: (a) Steer to the left of the setting sun; (b) Steer to the right of the setting sun, moon or Venus; (c) Steer towards the rising sun.
If these directions have any historical basis at all, it may have been in regard to the final courses steered when landing in New Zealand. They would have been useless in attempting to sail back to Polynesia.
There is plenty of evidence that the Polynesians used stars near the horizon to steer by, and that they learnt to set courses to near-by islands. They needed landmarks. As the distance on the authenticated voyages did not exceed 170 miles, with a favourable wind the voyagers would reach their target during the following day. Captain Beechey, R.N., reported in 1824 that the natives of Anaa in the Tuamotus used landmarks in this way to get to Maitai, 170 miles away, on their voyages to Tahiti. In 1826 Peter Dillon found that the natives of Tikopia had been making voyages to Vanikoro, 115 miles to the west. On the same island, in 1929 and 1952, Professor Firth found that the Tikopians were still making voyages to Anuta (Cherry Island), 75 miles to the east. He said that they waited for a favourable wind, set their course by landmarks, and steered by horizon stars en route.
Unfortunately none of these witnesses describe the nature of the landmarks used. They may have been wooden beacons, tall trees, or innumerable other things. I heard of some coral stones on Arorae Island which were said to point to other islands for the use of canoe navigators in ancient times. Some followed bird flight. When Tikopians voyaged to Anuta, they lined up two gaps in the hills. This gave a north-easterly course to Anuta. Tikopia, Anuta and Vanikoro have charted heights of 1,235, 212 and 3,031 feet respectively, making them easier targets, and also giving better landmarks for departures.
ARORAE's NAVIGATION STONES
Arorae is in the Gilbert Islands. The navigational stones are a group of eight or nine stones which are said by the natives to have been used to direct early canoe voyagers to the neighbouring islands. The navigational stones are flat slabs of coral, measuring five feet by four as a rule, and are about six inches thick. They are left with their natural irregularities of shape and surface, and are set up on edge, being supported around the base by paving. Of the nine stones shown in figure 1, there are eight apparently intended for navigation. The stones point out to sea as shown by the arrows, giving the direction to steer to each island, either real or mythical.
From some considerations I think that the stones are very old, and that they were erected over a long period, possibly between about 1000 A.D. and 1500 A.D., to serve as navigational guides. The directions were to me surprisingly accurate and raised the possibility of their being aligned with the aid of a compass, and therefore in European times, but the fact that their origin is forgotten seems to rule out that possibility, apart from their apparent age from another consideration, discussed in a later paragraph.
How would the canoe be navigated on the return journey? The islands visited might have had directional stones for voyages, and these may have been overlooked and forgotten since. They may have been single stones pointing to Arorae, but these sandy islands have many stone markers on them for other purposes, such as land boundaries between the rows of coconut palms. The navigator may have had to learn his guiding stars in the opposite direction from the Arorae stones before setting out, or he could have used the stars for his outward journey as stars to keep astern on the homeward voyage. In these cases the five-degree allowance would not be helping him, but would be setting him badly to leeward.
Stone C, originally at the beach-head, became too far inland by the extension of the land, and was therefore superseded at a later date by stone D. These stones are so old that land changes necessitated a stone change.
SEARCHING FOR AN ISLAND
After having steered a given course for the estimated distance to reach an island, it is usual to continue on the course for some time in case the distance has not been made good. Having covered enough extra distance to allow for any extra set from a current, and other errors in the estimation of the distance covered, some kind of search will be instituted. The form of search used by Polynesian navigators is unknown, but European navigators in similar circumstances, if they are well versed in the art, would start what is known as a square search. This consists of ever increasing circles or squares around the position in which the island had been expected. The method is a very tiresome one, but there is no better. The circular or square search is complicated by two factors. The wind and the current.
The alternative method is to start a zig-zag search before the island is due to appear. The flight of birds for example, which often depends on the time of day, would give two directions. It could be assumed that the birds in the morning were flying away from their land base, and in the evening towards it, if the birds seen were not migratory types.
After considering the difficulties of searching for an island which has not appeared in accordance with dead-reckoning, it seems probable that canoe voyagers would either become lost for ever, or arrive at a different island by pure chance.
VISTING ISLAND CHAINS
Island chains or groups of island sare different as they are wider spread making the possibility of contact more likely although it might be possible to sail between two islanmds and never saee them due to darkness or weather, or distance between islands. Make no ,istake, Polynesian did not simply laucng a canoe and arrived at the excvat beach on the eaxt island they palnend to. Tpo suggest such a thing is clearly drediculous.
The higher and more mountainous islands are certainly much easier to locate than the low coral ones, for many reasons. For one thing they are visible at much greater distances. For example, an island 10,000 feet high can be seen in theory at 100 miles. This will only be possible in particularly clear weather but high islands have more vegetation and therefore more birds. Rivers also discolour the water and take debris out to sea.
The legendary voyages between Rarotonga and New Zealand, for example, could have used circuitous routes, arriving on the west coast of North Island and departing from the east coast, to use the westerlies of those latitudes. The Portuguese discovered the blessings of indirect sailing in the Atlantic about 1550, and the Spanish did the same in the Pacific a century later. The Arabs in the Indian Ocean had already been forced by the monsoons to regulate their voyages to the prevailing winds between India and Africa. It is very unlikely that the Polynesians had a similar system over wide areas, for they were not traders but settlers, and had scant knowledge of any distant geography or meteorology.
DRIFT VOYAGES
So let’s say you fail to find your island, a canoe navigator will attempt either to get home again, or if the locals are hostile, try to find some other island, any other land at all. If he considers himself lost and in unknown waters he will leave the canoe at the mercy of wind and current, so we can then regard it as a drift.
In the warmer parts of the Pacific the winds and currents tend to flow westwards and towards the Equator. This flow is balanced by westerly winds and currents near the Equator and towards the Poles. As we might expect, most recorded drifts have been to the westward. Research has shown that many of these drifts have been the result of unexpected westerly winds during the summer months of the north-west monsoon. This season is quite different in character from the steady south-east season, being a period of calms, variable winds such as light north-easters, and of violent westerly squalls. These westerlies may last two hours, two days, or two weeks. They arrive with heavy rain and cloud from any direction between north and west and therefore throw navigation into confusion. Even astronomical navigation is prevented by clouds until the weather clears a little. The violence of the wind will blow canoes or vessels under sail far to the east, and many drifting voyagers never get back towards the west again. Most of these drifts, when the time and distance are known, give a mean speed of about one knot. This is the average rate of most ocean currents, and it appears that the various courses sailed, and searches made, have little effect on the final drift.
No doubt many drifts have ended in oblivion, as many died on drifts which carried survivors to ultimate safety. I can only remember one case of a canoe being sighted at sea with a skeleton as its only occupant, but many empty and broken canoes have been found in unexpected places, like Norfolk Island and Washington Island. The latter was found inside the former lagoon, while many wrecked canoes of different ages litter the beach of Wreck Bay on Christmas Island.
LATITUDE SIGHTS AND SAILING
In considering the question of what forms of navigation were possibly used by the Polynesians, it is quite unrealistic to assume that their small and scattered communities could, without mathematics and written records, without sundials, clocks, charts, magnetic needles, astrolabes or sextants of any kind, achieve better systems of navigation than the combined civilisations of Christendom and Islam in the year 1500.
Owing to the instruments used, the imperfection of the astronomical ephemerides, and the shaky arithmetic of the sailors, the system was hardly accurate enough to find a small island in the open sea. For the system had to work both ways: the island had to be established in latitude by heavenly sights by one navigator, so it could be found again by the same method. As this system was one which could have been used by the Polynesians, it must be considered in greater detail. But it must be remembered that the chances of the Polynesians inventing such a system were about the same as of their inventing an alphabet.
Gatty in his famous Raft Book gave directions for the emergency making of a similar instrument, with a stick or canoepaddle and a length of string, which would serve the same purpose. With such an instrument it is possible to observe the latitude to an accuracy of perhaps 20 miles, but the application of the sight to navigation would require the knowledge of the declination of the star observed and the correct latitude of the destination. The Gatty theory that the Polynesians used overhead stars to locate islands in the Pacific is really impracticable, for at sea it is especially difficult to judge when a star is in the zenith.
As an example of the current in Equaotrial areas, I once had to stop overnight off Fanning Island on three different nights in one week. On the first night we drifted NW at one knot; on the second night we drifted SE at one knot; and on the third night due west at one knot. On each occasion we started from the same spot, namely just outside the entrance to English Harbour.
While latitude sailing is satisfactory when making for a long coastline, or a long chain of islands, it has limitations when searching for a small isolated island of low altitude. For the latitude can only be checked at intervals, by the sun at noon each day, and by the stars at dawn and dusk when the horizon is clearly visible as well as the stars. Overnight an unexpected set of one knot can move a vessel off track by 12 miles, just sufficient to miss a coral island. The navigator who only checks his latitude each day at noon may be 20 or 30 miles off track in 24 hours and must then retrace his steps if he is not to risk missing his target. This precision could not be expected of primitive navigation by Polynesians.
LONGITUDE
The concept of longitude arose in the Eastern Mediterranean as a result of the knowledge of latitude. But it proved to be a much more elusive quantity. The longitude is very much more difficult to measure.
Mendana found the Solomons on his first voyage, he sailed along the latitude of San Cristobal on his second voyage to return to the same place. Long after he thought he had passed the Solomons without seeing them, he arrived at the Santa Cruz group, still 200 miles east of the Solomons. It was 200 years before anyone found the Solomons again.
After centuries of trial and error, and many vain inventions, it was found that, apart from delicate observations by astronomers, the only practical method was by means of a perfect clock to show G.M.T. at all times. This could be compared with the local time by the sun or stars, and the difference was the longitude in time. Until the chronometer was invented and introduced in Cook's time, no method gave any results worth mention except the laborious method of taking lunar distances. We can be certain that no method was known to the Polynesians.
VOYAGES TO NEW ZEALAND
The most difficult question in Polynesian navigation is how the Polynesians got to New Zealand. The only thing we are sure about is that they did get there, and at a date five hundred years before Capt. Cook discovered it for himself..
Assuming that the Maoris' forefathers came from the vicinity of Rarotonga, their legends of intentional migration to New Zealand presuppose an earlier voyage of discovery from which at least one good navigator reached the Cook Islands, no matter where he came from originally.
The North Island of New Zealand offers a target of fifteen degrees to an observer at Rarotonga, for it measures 450 miles at a distance of 1,500 miles. This is not a bad target, if someone can give the correct course to steer. It would only take 12 days at five knots, if the wind held all the way, and many natives have survived accidental voyages of greater distances. At one knot it would take two months to go the distance.
The canoes which reached the coasts of New Zealand did not all arrive on the east coast, but some landed on the west coast of the North Island. I suspect that their final courses when making a landfall may have their echoes in the different versions of the sailing directions as attributed to Kupe, the first discoverer. These were said to be, in different legends: (a) Steer to the right of the setting sun, moon or Venus on the Orongonui (28th) of Tatau-uruora (November); (b) Steer to the left of the setting sun; and (c) Steer towards the rising sun.
If a direct course to New Zealand were ever used, it would have had to be almost identical with that given by the landmarks at Atiu for the voyage to Rarotonga.
The fact remains that a true course from Atiu to Rarotonga would, if continued, take one to New Zealand. It is hard to think that anyone from Atiu who failed to find Rarotonga in two days sailing would continue on the same course for two weeks, and so discover New Zealand.
However, New Zealand was discovered, and by the traditions they left and returned a few times, although there is no evidence that such voyages could have been intentional feats of long-distance navigation. Intentional voyages of this range require knowledge both of navigation and geography far beyond that found in Polynesia in Cook's time or since, and I firmly conclude that the voyages to New Zealand were accidental, at least initially.
*****
So back to Lord Howe Island. Why was it never reached? It was because an accidental voyage hitting a small island less than 1% the size of NZ as approached from the east was unlikely. At least Norfolk was in an indirect line as was probably also an accidental discovery judging by the lack of Polynesian finds there. How many Polynesians were lost as seas we will never know. No doubt there more migrating or exploration canoes than never made it and therefore are not recorded? (keep in mind they did not all travel from one place at one time). Now some will say Maori couldn't lose a waka on an ocean trip. Really? Many Maori stories reveal overturning canoes and drownings very close to shore. Are others suggesting some romantic ideal that Polynesians were infallible on the wide ocean expanses?
Polynesians were great explorers we are told, and over two periods they were, but lets not romanticize the issue of the facts of navigation. Modern sailors used all the means the Polynesian had, plus more, and still had to track back and forth to find a location until the invention of the chronometer that Capt Cook first used to success - and only then in fine weather.
A voyage from Polynesia to Aotearoa was not a pleasure cruise, with plentiful food, fine weather and room service. They were in open craft, with limited space, with few provisions due to that space and limited time to reach the target. Otherwise they were better sailors than any other race before the modern GPS and satellite aids came into being. But maybe they were and then inexplicably lost the expertise once here...but why would that occur. Why wouldn't Australia be reached by those same explorers?
Now imagine 40 people on a double hulled canoe, with about 3 feet of space each plus animals, food, weapons, and in a the case of some, a huge anchor stone that required 6 people to lift.... and all this on an open deck with a portion covered in an open ended thatch covering...........all remaining this way for 4-6 weeks of open ocean voyaging depending on conditions.
We have suggested before that the Polynesian that arrived here did so deliberately once it was first discovered (accidentally) they were refugees from a war they could not win based on differing religious views to those on Raiatea at the time. It's just a theory but it fits. http://tangatawhenua16.wixsite.com/the-first-ones-blog/single-post/2016/03/08/SideStep-Hawaiki-Mecca-of-the-Pacific
The new arrivals didn't come to Aotearoa based on a wish of a King to claim new lands. They left to find a new home and there was a reason for that need. They had little interest in exploring too much further or they would have ended up in Tasmania. Those outlying southern islands where evidence has been found of Maori visitation has been more likely unsuccessful voyages where they died or left to try and return home but perished.
*****
STICK CHARTS
Having looked at some comments from 1964, what do we know now and what about Polynesian stick charts?The charts were made by men from thin strips of coconut frond midribs or pandanus root. They were then bound together with coconut sennit in geometric patterns depicting sea currents around the low lying atolls. Small money cowrie shells or coral pebbles indicated islands and curved sticks represent wave patterns. They were not carried on a voyage and the adult navigator gauged the wave patterns represented in the Stick Charts entirely by his sense of touch. “He would crouch in the bow of his canoe and literally feel every motion of the vessel.” As with ripples in a pond they “concentrated on refraction of swells as they came in contact with undersea slopes of islands and the bending of swells around islands as they interacted with swells coming from opposite directions.”
They were constructed with so much variance in form and interpretation that they were “readable” only by the specific navigators who constructed them. Evidently the knowledge contained in each was a closely guarded secret.
However, the earliest stick charts were from the Marshall Islands and first described in 1862. They represented an area of only 112 square miles that included 29 atolls and 5 islands. Not much distance was travelled between each one and so it was easy to construct a method of navigating currents to specific islands. A lot of it has to do with repeating wave patterns.
Of course this is not possible on open ocean voyages to the likes of Aotearoa.
HAWAIKI - NUI
Since 1964 there have been voyages where without the aid of modern navigation, people have been able to sail from Tahiti to NZ. To be honest, any modern person with enough knowledge of maps, tides, charts and ocean sense would be able to do the same knowing what we do today. We know far more about this ocean and what is beyond the horizon without ever going there.. We know what to expect - seasonal storms, currents, islands etc. with or without modern navigation aids, than anyone sailing to a reported land in the deep south 800+ years ago. The voyages after the first successful one (and we do not know how many were unsuccessful) may not have been accidental, but they would have been arduous if not hazardous.
In 1985 a vessel carved from totara with traditional adzes and then was sent to Tahiti . This was an authentic vessel and the twin hulls were lashed together with sennit rope made from coconut fibre. Bamboo masts supported sails woven from pandanus leaves. The only piece of modern equipment was a radio.
Upon its launching in Tahiti, however, the canoe proved to be difficult to sail. Following a number of unsuccessful trials in Tahitian waters with a replica of a Tahitian spritsail, for the voyage to New Zealand the Tahitian rig was replaced with a marconi sail rig similar to that of a modern yacht. None the less, even with this new sail rig and a re-carving of the hulls to lighten the craft, the Hawaiki Nui apparently proved to be neither as fast nor as weatherly a sailing vessel as Hōkūle'a. On their dramatic voyage they successfully steered through several storms. It took five weeks. But they knew better than any Polynesian what lay ahead. That does not make the voyage any less successful and I for one am pleased that one that was carved from traditional tools, and constructed from traditional materials made the journey to prove that it could be done. However, there is very little in way of information or even pictures about this journey available. This is all we could find from construction, to arrival in Auckland to it lying back in Tahiti.
What we have learned about this voyage is that intermittent easterlies, interspersed with variables and short spells of westerlies created problems. The journey was slower than they expected. When, for example, the canoe approached Great Barrier Island off the east coast of the North Island, a strong north-west wind sprang up which forced Hawaiki -nui towards the south-east and several days later was threatening to carry it past East Cape until a fishing trawler took it under tow and brought it into Hick's Bay. In the case of the olden days they would have just landed wherever they could. We have previously had an article where old legend say s many migration canoes met at the same bay. It could be, but it seems very unlikely without much voyaging up and down the coast until finding a safe place to land.
The Hawaiki-nui, while being as original as possible was not successful as a sailing craft as expected, even with all the knowledge known in modern days about old techniques and the tahitian rig did not work very well. Neither did re-carving it prove successful in making it an ideal craft. While this was as 'original' as any to every attempt the journey it proved a little less than satisfactory as an ocean going vessel and modern adaptations were ultimately required to even begin the journey. This is why the Hawaiki-nui is seldom mentioned.
*****
So why was Lord Howe never discovered? I think for all the reason above, mainly they were not explorers for the sake of exploration, but migrators from troubled times and tribes. And for the same reasons they didn't reach Australia, currents, wind and distance. If they had known Australia was there they would have tried to dominate that land too...as all races have that find new lands to their liking.
