HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT THE OCEAN GOING CANOES LOOKED LIKE?

If the Pacific Ocean migrations of the Austronesian peoples ended about 1.000 AD - with the discovery and settlement of New Zealand - how do we know what their canoes looked like?

There are several sources of information  about the 50 to 90 foot ocean going canoes these explorers used:

• The late 1700's print taken from Captain Cook's artist Sydney Parkinson, which shows two double hulled canoes - refer my previous blog and picture. Parkinson had an accurate eye for detail and recorded many things seen by Cook and his crew on the First Voyage.
• On the island of Huahine, 150 km west of Tahiti, while digging foundations for a new hotel, a partly constructed double hull canoe was unearthed and recorded. It was surmised that around 1000 AD this canoe was being built when the island was hit by a tsunami which buried the canoe in mud.
• The traditional songs of many Polynesian people tell the stories of the canoes and their explorations. Some old islanders still have oral knowledge handed down  from their forebears about the design of the canoes, often known as "waka" or "vaka" in Polynesia and New Zealand.
• Much research has been carried out since the 1930's to capture the knowledge of these voyaging canoes as the old mariners of the Islands were passing away. As a result we know of the double hulled construction, which Sir Joseph Banks on Capt. Cook' first voyage estimated to be 50 feet to 75 feet long, and could easily outsail the 'Endeavour'.
• The existing War Wakas in New Zealand - one  measures 120 ft long, though of single hull construction. It is still used for ceremonial occasions.

Representation of a Pacific Voyaging Canoe.

BOOK LAUNCH

BOOK LAUNCH  DAY was Wednesday, May 16 2013.  We held the book launch at our local Library at Port Macquarie, NSW Australia and had friends and members of the two local writing groups I belong to.

I talked about the Austronesian people and their gradual migration south from Taiwan and then out into the empty Pacific Ocean, and how they did it. The talk created a  lot of interest as I covered a lot of historical information that was not widely known.

The book is selling steadily and people say they enjoy reading it and find it interesting.

Its been a lot of fun getting this story that had to be told out into people's hands.

BOOK NOW AVAILABLE FOR ORDERING

Well here is my just published book: "TOWARDS  RAHITI" : 112 pages of adventure, based upon my historical research.  The story follows the adventures of a Stone Age family who have to find a new island home, somewhere out there in the unknown vastness of the Pacific Ocean. How did they do that?
Read the book and find out what happens!

So now you can order a copy if you would like to read it. Cost is only $AUS 15.00 plus postage.

To order YOUR copy, you can :

Send an e-mail to 

writerre79@gmail.com

stating your name and postal address and I can advise you of postage cost and payment options.

To those who have looked at my blog, thank you for your interest!

Raymond Evans

Early depiction of the double hulled canoes.

Here is an old drawing dating from 1772-1774, showing double hulled canoes being sailed at the island of Ulietea, an island in the Society Islands group, just north west of Tahiti. The name of the island today is Uturea. The engraving was done by Edward Rooker from an original sketch by Sydney Parkinson, who was the artist for Captain Cook's voyages.

The double hull design of the great ocean going canoes is readily visible, thus Cook saw these voyaging canoes still in use after some fifteen hundred years after the Austronesian voyagers reached this area, and Parkinson recorded what he saw, with his usual eye for detail.

 Edward Rooker: A view in the island of Ulietea with a double canoe and a boathouse. 

Courtesy of National Library of Australia, Catalogue:  pic. an9184895 v.

The picture can be enlarged by double clicking upon it.

"TOWARDS RAHITI

Well, here is me holding the Proof Copy of my book about the Austronesian voyaging peoples.

The book is named "Towards Rahiti" and you will know how that fits in when you read the book!

After some months of patient plodding and waiting - even waiting weeks for a decent sunrise shot for the cover during a long rainy spell - we are well under way now to release the book late April 2013.

NEW BOOK

If you take a look at the Pacific Ocean, you will soon realise just how vast it is.

So how did Stone Age people, with none of our technologies, find their way across such vast distances of ocean?

I have written a book about this adventure - surely one of the great voyaging adventures of all time.

The story traces a family caught up in a need to find a new homeland, and tells the story of just how they did that, and of all the things that happened to them along the way.

The book is based on my modest research of these Austronesian people and tells what might have happened to them, good and bad. The story is a historical adventure yarn, written in a down-to-early style, and does not have one swear word in it!  Children can read it.  Older folks will find it interesting.

The book is called "TOWARDS RAHITI" and soon will go to the printers.

I'll let you all know when it can be purchase for a modest sum.

NAVIGATION WITHOUT GADGETS

If you want to learn more about just HOW did the Stone Age, Austronesian people find their way across vast distances of empty ocean - without maps, without compasses nor sextants, then there is a book you must read.

David Lewis, sailor and navigator from London, actually went to today's Micronesia to an island where it was known that old sailors still used traditional methods for navigation at sea. He lived and sailed with these knowledgeable people and learned from them, earning their respect.

He recorded for posterity what he learned in two books:

"We the Navigators" and "The Voyaging Stars"

These books are still readily available. 

The ocean navigators he sailed with had advanced 'star maps' in their minds and knew many locations by the stars above.

One marvels at what skills modern man has lost.  The younger islanders now use outboard motor boats and GPS.  Thank goodness there are those among us like David Lewis who have recorded the amazing skills of so called 'primitive peoples'.

WHY DID SOME CULTURES DEVELOP FASTER THAN OTHERS?

Ever stop to think why some peoples advanced faster and further than others?

For example, why did the Australian aborigines remain at their Stone Age stage, and the American Indians, and the Eskimos, while other people such as the Europeans, Chinese and perhaps the Austronesian people developed technologies to solve their problems and undertake major explorations?  Why did that happen?

This is a question that I puzzled over and led me to write about the Austronesian peoples and their Pacific Ocean explorations of the late Stone Age.

Many of the answers came from a book recommended by my son in London:
"Guns, Germs and Steel', by Jared Diamond, Vintage, 2005, ISBN 9780099302780.

Jared Diamond traces the reasons behind differing rates of progress among the  major population groups of our world, and I was especially interested in Chapter 17 'Speedboat to Polynesia' as it related to what I had been thinking about:

"HOW DID PEOPLE FIND THEIR WAY RIGHT ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN?'

This book started me delving into the history of the Stone Age explorers who first discovered the islands of the vast, hitherto unpopulated Pacific Ocean.

The result of my modest research is my book nearing completion" "TOWARDS RAHITI".

There is much  more information over in the INFORMATION PAGES that will interest you if you have ever wondered, as I did, about the peopling of the Pacific Ocean.

FORTHCOMING BOOK

For some time now I have been working on a story about what it was like to be part of the great, slow migration of the Austronesian people as as they pushed out into the unexplored, and empty  Pacific Ocean.

They were the first humans to get there.

Based on my research of this subject, I have written a story about a Stone Age  family who had to take part in an adventurous voyage of discovery. It's fiction, but the events could have happened. The story is set in 1600 BC and shows what had to be done to undertake such a voyage into the unknown, and the dangers of what perhaps must have happened to some of the explorers. The story will give one an idea of what it must have been like on such an adventure.

The book is titled:  'TOWARDS  RAHITI' , and I will later announce when the book is published.