Couple Missing at Sea

[Mike B]

No argument from me.

Tony, while I found the book interesting you won't find me pitching the chartplotter overboard any time soon. I do have to wonder how the ancient mariners did it. It's not uncommon to hear of prevailing winds or weather patterns thoughout the world. So isn't it conceiveable that someone figured out how to navigate by it? Yes you're right in that sooner or later you'll find land (something about a blind squirrel finding a nut sooner or later) but it appears as though they were also able to find their way back to the right island. Pure luck? Doubt it. Just can't prove it.Mike

 

[John]

Pacific Islander navigation

There is a fascinating book called "A People's History of Science." It describes, among other things, that it was really the ordinary sailors who first realized that the Earth is round. That was the only explanation for their daily experience - climbing the mast, you could see things that couldn't be seen from the deck of the ship. (Incidentally, I was taught in school that Christopher Columbus's sailors were about to revolt because they were afraid he was sailing them over the edge of the world. In fact, their planned revolt was for a good reason: Columbus was thinking he was going to sail all the way to India across the Atlantic. The sailors knew that they would not be able to survive that long of a voyage. They were right. The only thing was, neither they nor Columbus knew that there was another huge land mass between Europe and India.) As for the Pacific Islanders: Yes, there are lots of islands in that part of the world. However, some of the people made trips of weeks to get to some of those islands. Clearly, they wouldn't have survived if they had no idea where they were going. How did they do it?They navigated by prevailing winds, the clouds, the stars and the sun, but also by other bits of scientific knowledge. For instance, they knew that certain kinds of birds flew away from land (and out over the ocean) in the morning and returned to land in the evening. They also knew that at certain times of year the sea swells tended to run in a certain direction. But if there was an island in between them and the direction from which the swells were running, this would cause the swells to behave differently. You know how they sensed these subtle differences in the sea swells? By using the most sensitive part of a man's body - they lay down naked on the bottom of their dugouts and sensed the swells with their testicles.It's amazing what we humans learn from experience!PS. And if anybody's looking for a late Xmas present to give somebody, I recommend "A People's History of Science" by Clifford Connor.

 

[MoonSailer]

Following stars and wave patterns

From what I read it seemed that they followed stars to get the right lattitude and then wave patterns to know when they were close to an island. Still sounds scarey on a dark and stormy night!!! But if you live on an island and fished for a living you would be very comfortable at sea. I guess for the star paths to work you would have to have some kind of calender or at least a knowledge of the seasons. A lot might depend upon motivation. A small island running short of food or having some kind of war might make the hazards of the sea seem much less that the hazards of the land. Even now we have Cubans trying to cross into the USA in all sorts of cobbled up floating creations. With many reports of canniblism in the pacific knowldege that you were going to dinner at the chief's birthday party might provide inspiration to develope navigation skills.

 

[Doug]

Any record

of how many thousand died learning these handy tips? The first time I was in blue water my only thought was Vikings were suicidal and how much I love GPS.

 

[Ross]

Through many years of experience the navigators

learned where the individual stars rose and set. With this they could select a direction for a couple of hours then they had to choose the next rising star all through the night. They had men and probably women that devoted their lives to learning navigation. The common boater did not possess the knowledge needed for long voyages. Until the GPS navigation was a specilized skill that takes months of study and years to fully master.Edit to add: Steve Thomas wrote a book that says what we have been struggling with here. I offer the link.http://www.stevethomashome.com/navigator.html