WEBVTT - From the Vault: Pacific Navigation, Part 2 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.840 Hey you welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. This 0:00:07.880 --> 0:00:10.800 is Robert Lamb and this is Joe McCormick, and today 0:00:10.840 --> 0:00:13.280 we have an episode from the vault for you. This 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:16.640 is part two of our series on Pacific Island navigation. 0:00:16.720 --> 0:00:25.680 This episode originally aired July. Let's dive right in Welcome 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:35.560 to Stuff to Blow Your Mind production of My Heart Radio. Hey, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:37.880 welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name is 0:00:37.960 --> 0:00:40.800 Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick, and we're back with 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:45.159 part two. In the last episode, we talked about the settlement, 0:00:45.200 --> 0:00:48.320 the original colonization of the Pacific Islands, and today we're 0:00:48.360 --> 0:00:54.080 back to talk about some documentation of the amazing navigation 0:00:54.200 --> 0:00:59.240 techniques used by the master navigators of various Pacific islands. 0:00:59.640 --> 0:01:02.720 And I'm really excited to talk about this stuff today 0:01:02.760 --> 0:01:06.120 because I've been reading this big, very important book on 0:01:06.160 --> 0:01:09.360 the subject that was published in nineteen seventy two by 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:12.679 an author named David Lewis, called We the Navigators that 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:18.840 involves extensive interviews with and then direct sailing and firsthand 0:01:18.880 --> 0:01:22.280 observation of the navigation techniques of master navigators from the 0:01:22.280 --> 0:01:25.600 Pacific Islands. For example, a man named Tevak of the 0:01:25.880 --> 0:01:28.920 Santa Cruz Reef Islands and a man named hip Or 0:01:29.200 --> 0:01:32.800 of Poula Watt in the Carolines. And today we're gonna 0:01:32.800 --> 0:01:36.039 be talking about some of these specific navigation techniques. Yeah, 0:01:36.080 --> 0:01:40.960 and again these are the techniques of environmental navigation, so 0:01:41.080 --> 0:01:46.080 navigation at sea on the open sea, conducted without instruments. 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.360 And so I mean that's ultimately the really amazing part 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:51.440 of this. But then at the same same time, I 0:01:51.480 --> 0:01:53.680 want to stress something we've mentioned in the first episode 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:56.080 that this is also not based in sort of a 0:01:56.160 --> 0:01:58.760 gut instinct, a kind of well I've been at sea enough, 0:01:58.800 --> 0:02:00.880 I kind of know what I'm doing. No, this is 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:03.840 a this is a science. This is this is these 0:02:03.840 --> 0:02:06.680 are techniques that would have that were passed down from 0:02:06.800 --> 0:02:11.799 generation to generation, from skilled individual to two skilled individual. 0:02:12.200 --> 0:02:14.639 And uh and so you know, we see this continued 0:02:14.720 --> 0:02:19.080 on in oral traditions, but then also we've seen them recorded, 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:23.840 especially in the last few decades. Uh, that there's been 0:02:23.880 --> 0:02:28.040 a resurgence of interest in this um an effort to 0:02:28.040 --> 0:02:31.640 to make sure that these traditions and techniques survived and 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:36.080 then also to use them to understand the history of 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.359 the colonization of these islands by ancient humans, right. And 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.280 one of the points that Lewis argues in his book 0:02:43.400 --> 0:02:46.440 is that the colonization of the islands of the Pacific 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.880 was not driven entirely by random drift, say, people getting 0:02:50.919 --> 0:02:54.000 blown off course by a storm or getting lost and 0:02:54.040 --> 0:02:57.600 then happening upon a new island. That that Instead, he 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.680 argues that a lot of these islands were probably discovered 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:05.160 by deliberate exploratory probes. Right, So let's get into some 0:03:05.200 --> 0:03:08.400 of the techniques. Then We're going to start with what 0:03:08.520 --> 0:03:11.560 may seem the most obvious, and that is the stars. 0:03:12.040 --> 0:03:14.040 There are a lot of amazing techniques to talk about, 0:03:14.040 --> 0:03:17.080 but this is by far the most important one. Yes, 0:03:17.480 --> 0:03:21.960 So Pacific islanders, uh, specifically, the trained navigators, they did 0:03:22.040 --> 0:03:24.560 use the stars. The train navigator knew the positions of 0:03:24.600 --> 0:03:29.160 important stars and their relationship to islands by heart. They 0:03:29.240 --> 0:03:32.440 knew how the pattern of the stars changed depending on 0:03:32.560 --> 0:03:35.440 where you went and what time of the year it was. 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.080 And they could also use the stars to determine latitude, 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:43.080 so that's her north south positioning. They could roughly determine 0:03:43.480 --> 0:03:46.440 where they were in relation to the equator based on 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:50.360 the height of polaris or the southern cross above the horizon, 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:54.200 which they would measure, again not using instruments, but using 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:58.440 the human hand. Yes, or sometimes I think also maybe uh, 0:03:58.880 --> 0:04:02.240 parts of the boat could be used to sort of 0:04:02.280 --> 0:04:06.000 orient with the stars on the horizon. So if you're 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:08.760 unfamiliar with this kind of technique, as obviously most of 0:04:08.840 --> 0:04:12.160 us are as I am, the mind is immediately boggled. 0:04:12.240 --> 0:04:15.080 Right you think, Okay, how would I use the stars 0:04:15.120 --> 0:04:18.760 to find I don't know, a city or something like that. Uh, 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:21.479 you don't. You wouldn't even know where to start. But 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:23.640 once you know what to look for, this actually becomes 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:28.560 an extremely reliable method. Uh, And specifically the really important 0:04:28.960 --> 0:04:33.040 guide stars here are constellations that are low in the 0:04:33.080 --> 0:04:37.279 sky around the point where they are either rising or setting, 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.240 and can be easily associated with a particular heading toward 0:04:41.320 --> 0:04:44.360 the horizon. So you're steering your boat and you're observing 0:04:44.400 --> 0:04:47.160 the stars right around the horizon. So these would be 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:52.159 either stars and star constellations that have recently risen or 0:04:52.240 --> 0:04:55.479 are about to set, depending on which direction east west 0:04:55.520 --> 0:04:59.640 you're heading. So if you have a particular destination in mind, 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.360 and you know you're starting position, you can associate your 0:05:04.400 --> 0:05:08.760 destination with a particular guide star, or what a guide 0:05:08.760 --> 0:05:11.800 star would actually mean is a series of stars and 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:16.440 star constellations that will move move vertically up and down 0:05:16.480 --> 0:05:19.520 across the sky as the night goes on. But they 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.039 might be identified by say the first star you would 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:24.640 see in the sequence, as as the guide star, and 0:05:24.680 --> 0:05:27.039 then the train of subsequent stars that would move up 0:05:27.080 --> 0:05:30.320 and down as the night goes on. But that is 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.760 associated with a particular island. Now, of course, it gets 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:36.640 much more complicated than that, because, for one thing, you 0:05:36.720 --> 0:05:41.080 have to take into account position and geography. Because while 0:05:41.520 --> 0:05:44.200 a star can help give you a heading toward a 0:05:44.279 --> 0:05:49.080 known island that's associated with it would only necessarily be 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:53.520 associated with the island you're heading for from a particular direction. Right, 0:05:53.560 --> 0:05:56.800 So if you're heading from east to west, the island 0:05:56.800 --> 0:05:59.320 you're looking for is under a certain star, but if 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.720 you're heading from north to the same island, that island 0:06:02.720 --> 0:06:06.200 would be under a different star. Right. So the stars 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:09.640 help you get an orientation, but you have to know 0:06:09.880 --> 0:06:13.359 the relationships between a sort of mental map of islands 0:06:13.360 --> 0:06:16.640 in your head and how shifting the starting point of 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.720 the journey will shift, what star path will lead you 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:23.240 to your island destination. But it gets even more complicated 0:06:23.279 --> 0:06:25.480 than that, because, of course, as we mentioned, the stars 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:29.600 don't stay still throughout the night. The earth is rotating, 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:33.279 so the fixed stars rise and set across the sky 0:06:33.520 --> 0:06:36.080 over the course of a night. And as the stars 0:06:36.240 --> 0:06:39.520 rise higher or set below the horizon, they become less 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.680 useful or not useful at all for navigating without equipment 0:06:42.680 --> 0:06:45.599 and charts, not just because say, they're higher as they're 0:06:45.640 --> 0:06:48.240 rising up, but also because they tend to rise at 0:06:48.279 --> 0:06:51.640 an angle, so they won't stay right where they're supposed 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:54.320 to be on the horizon. What you want is a 0:06:54.680 --> 0:06:58.080 reference star that is either just rising if you're heading east, 0:06:58.200 --> 0:07:01.240 or is just about to set if your head west. Um, 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.479 So what do you do there? Well, what you would 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.440 tend to do is cycle through new sets of rising 0:07:07.560 --> 0:07:10.240 or falling guide stars that you know will keep you 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:13.800 pointed in the right direction. And Lewis writes about this 0:07:13.880 --> 0:07:16.760 that on average you won't need more than about ten 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.960 guide stars to sail through an entire night, given the 0:07:20.000 --> 0:07:22.960 amount of time that each star is usually pretty close 0:07:23.000 --> 0:07:25.520 to the horizon, close enough to be usable. So you 0:07:25.520 --> 0:07:27.640 can almost imagine kind of a I don't know, like 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.040 those like stock ticker strips. You know, the old one 0:07:30.160 --> 0:07:32.880 is like a strip of stars that are peeling up 0:07:32.920 --> 0:07:36.000 over the horizon all night long, and each one, you know, 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:38.200 is the next one in the set that is still 0:07:38.200 --> 0:07:41.880 oriented with the top star in that strip that will 0:07:41.960 --> 0:07:43.640 keep you going in the direction you need to go. 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:47.960 But stop and think about, like how much memorization this requires, 0:07:48.040 --> 0:07:51.080 Like how much you need to know about what the 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:55.040 stars look like, what their orientations are, and their relationships 0:07:55.120 --> 0:07:57.320 to the islands you need to get to depending on 0:07:57.360 --> 0:08:00.000 where you're starting point is So the amount of now 0:08:00.040 --> 0:08:03.240 vigational lore that needs to be committed to memory and 0:08:03.320 --> 0:08:06.560 the amount of detail in it is is absolutely astounding. 0:08:07.160 --> 0:08:08.720 I mean, it reminds me a little. These are not 0:08:08.760 --> 0:08:10.840 directly comparable at all, but it reminds me a little 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:13.560 of how in or was it Mark Twain's life on 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.760 the Mississippi talking about how an experienced riverboat pilot would 0:08:17.800 --> 0:08:20.600 need to know by heart the entire river, like all 0:08:20.600 --> 0:08:24.440 the various details of its its twist and binds, its depth, etcetera, 0:08:24.440 --> 0:08:28.480 and everything that went into knowing it. Which, um, yeah, 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:31.160 from what I've read, you can you can basically take 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:34.240 that and apply it to to any kind of nautical setting. 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.040 And certainly this one is well like you would need 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:41.240 to to know by heart the environment through which you 0:08:41.280 --> 0:08:44.760 would be uh sailing, the environment of the waters, but 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.680 also the environment of the stars above. Yeah. And it 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.760 seems that while I don't know, while the mental memorization 0:08:51.920 --> 0:08:55.400 of physical surroundings on land, including like trees and changes 0:08:55.440 --> 0:08:58.000 in terrain and rocks and landmarks and stuff like that, 0:08:58.080 --> 0:09:00.920 it maybe this is just my land lubber bias, but 0:09:01.040 --> 0:09:03.920 it it seems like that kind of thing probably comes 0:09:04.000 --> 0:09:07.280 more intuitively. It's more just sort of like a biological 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.080 default to recognize landmarks like plants and rocks and stuff 0:09:11.120 --> 0:09:15.160 like that. Then it would be to memorize the stars 0:09:15.200 --> 0:09:19.000 as your landmarks for guidance. Yeah, yeah, I think you're right. 0:09:19.480 --> 0:09:23.679 I mean, it almost feels like saving through through space. Uh, 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:25.880 though of course there's gonna be plenty concerning the water 0:09:25.960 --> 0:09:29.199 itself and uh and uh and other environmental cues that 0:09:29.240 --> 0:09:31.200 will get to But but certainly at this point in 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:33.760 the in the podcast, it's easy to to almost think 0:09:33.760 --> 0:09:38.120 of these as space voyages because of the degree of 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:41.880 focus that must be placed on the stars, right, and 0:09:41.920 --> 0:09:45.880 so experienced specific navigators can use these rising and setting 0:09:45.880 --> 0:09:50.400 guide stars to form this extremely accurate mental compass. Lewis 0:09:50.440 --> 0:09:52.960 gives one example of one of his voyages with the 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:58.120 navigator TVAK, and he says, quote, by these obliquely sinking stars, 0:09:58.120 --> 0:10:00.679 he was able to inform me that during the evening 0:10:01.240 --> 0:10:05.040 that the wind had backed from southeast to south southeast. 0:10:05.600 --> 0:10:10.000 I seriously doubted the accuracy of his observation until Canopus, 0:10:10.040 --> 0:10:12.400 topping the horizon on a bearing of a hundred and 0:10:12.440 --> 0:10:16.040 forty three degrees exactly in line with our stern, confirmed 0:10:16.080 --> 0:10:18.400 that we were in fact dead on course and that 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:22.360 the wind had changed. Now, there's another variation on the 0:10:22.400 --> 0:10:25.559 idea of guide stars for navigation that is known as 0:10:25.640 --> 0:10:30.520 the sidereal compass. That is basically like a view of 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.800 the night sky that identifies particular rising or setting stars 0:10:35.040 --> 0:10:38.320 with points on an imagined compass. Again, this is not 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:41.480 a piece of equipment and external tool. This is a 0:10:41.480 --> 0:10:44.520 compass in the brain that has a picture a mental 0:10:44.559 --> 0:10:46.880 map of the stars and how the stars along the 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:51.719 horizon will give you information about north, southeast, and west. Now, 0:10:51.760 --> 0:10:54.880 these are the basic primary methods of navigation by stars, 0:10:54.920 --> 0:10:58.400 but obviously in practice, it's a lot more complicated, so 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.200 a few examples. Of course, there is a lot of 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:05.439 adjusting the course to compensate for variations in currents and winds, 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:10.319 and to be adaptable for for celestial orientation markers when 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:13.080 part of the sky is obscured, for example, by clouds, 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:15.360 and I'll mention more about that in a minute. There's 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.000 another thing that's a complication with the use of guide 0:11:18.040 --> 0:11:23.319 stars for navigation, which is the seasonality of guide stars. Now, 0:11:23.320 --> 0:11:27.880 of course, the availability of guide stars varies with the seasons, 0:11:27.920 --> 0:11:32.320 because the sidereal day is actually twenty three hours and 0:11:32.400 --> 0:11:36.360 fifty six minutes long, not twenty four hours. So each 0:11:36.480 --> 0:11:41.040 star rises and sets four minutes earlier each night. And 0:11:41.080 --> 0:11:43.560 as you can imagine, as this builds up over time, 0:11:43.880 --> 0:11:47.640 you're actually going to be having different star maps available 0:11:47.679 --> 0:11:51.360 to you as the year goes on. So in illustrating this, 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:55.120 Lewis writes that quote Tevak told me that the sailing 0:11:55.160 --> 0:11:58.680 season in the Santa Cruz group lasted all year round, 0:11:58.760 --> 0:12:01.880 and that there were appropriate steering stars for each time 0:12:01.920 --> 0:12:06.320 of year. Similarly, when two two indicated the stars for 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:10.760 the Nomuka Tonga Tapoo passage, he stressed that the ones 0:12:10.840 --> 0:12:14.199 he was showing me were usable only up to about September, 0:12:14.240 --> 0:12:18.319 after which new stars and sailing directions had to be used. 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:20.960 So not only do you have to understand this whole 0:12:21.000 --> 0:12:24.600 star map and its relationship to the island geography, but 0:12:24.720 --> 0:12:27.920 also if you if you're sailing across different seasons, you 0:12:27.960 --> 0:12:30.680 have to have the seasonal backups in mind as well. 0:12:31.200 --> 0:12:33.880 Then there's even more to to take into account. One thing, 0:12:33.920 --> 0:12:38.080 for example, is wind and leeway, So experience navigators will 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.640 have a mental map to reach their destination that must 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:45.840 include compensation for leeway, you know, the sideward drift of 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:48.720 a boat as as is blown sort of off course 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:52.679 by wind. So if the navigator knows that the destination 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:56.160 is under a particular star, but there is a known 0:12:56.280 --> 0:12:59.800 and relatively dependable amount of southerly drift on the journey 0:12:59.800 --> 0:13:02.640 do to prevailing winds and currents, they actually have to 0:13:02.800 --> 0:13:07.760 aim a certain amount north of the guide star. Yeah, 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:10.679 and that's just for permanent drifts. There's also sort of 0:13:10.679 --> 0:13:13.880 more ad hoc compensation that has to take place along 0:13:13.920 --> 0:13:16.040 the way as well. But one of the big things 0:13:16.080 --> 0:13:19.319 that that really struck me about this was how how 0:13:19.400 --> 0:13:24.280 much it inverts the logic of nighttime navigation versus daytime navigation. 0:13:24.360 --> 0:13:27.079 You know, uh, like, how how would you think, what 0:13:27.360 --> 0:13:29.240 do you think would be the best time to try 0:13:29.240 --> 0:13:31.400 to get somewhere. Obviously you would probably think it's in 0:13:31.440 --> 0:13:33.520 the day right when you can see where you need 0:13:33.559 --> 0:13:36.560 to go. But it is much easier to use the 0:13:36.640 --> 0:13:41.600 highly dependable celestial navigation techniques of of the Pacific Islander 0:13:41.679 --> 0:13:44.800 navigation lore at night than it is in the daytime. 0:13:44.880 --> 0:13:47.120 There there's still tools they use in the daytime, and 0:13:47.120 --> 0:13:49.560 I'll talk about those in a minute. Um, But even 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:53.319 when the stars are largely obscured by clouds and experience, 0:13:53.400 --> 0:13:57.120 navigator can usually use some stars in the sky to 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.040 orient and to get onto the correct bearing, for example, 0:14:01.080 --> 0:14:03.599 by noting which stars might lie it's a nine d 0:14:03.760 --> 0:14:06.880 degrees to the course, etcetera. Yeah, I mean it almost 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:09.240 sounds like you would you would probably want to leave 0:14:10.080 --> 0:14:15.440 the shore, you know, around dusk, um, and uh, and 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.320 then once and then hopefully you're you're out to sea 0:14:18.800 --> 0:14:21.200 by the time the stars have come out. Right. Well, 0:14:21.240 --> 0:14:24.120 there's actually there's a good bit of thought about when 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:28.280 are the best times to arrive and depart. So they 0:14:28.280 --> 0:14:31.040 talked about Yeah, I think it's usually customary to leave 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:33.640 during the daytime. And one of the main reasons it's 0:14:33.720 --> 0:14:36.800 important to leave during the daytime is not only that 0:14:37.000 --> 0:14:40.000 people can be notified and you can say prepare things 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:42.560 to take along with you that same day, like fresh food, 0:14:43.000 --> 0:14:45.760 and you can say your farewells to people during the daytime, 0:14:46.520 --> 0:14:49.840 but you can also look back at the island you're 0:14:49.920 --> 0:14:53.080 leaving from to get back bearings, right, so you can 0:14:53.120 --> 0:14:56.760 make use of the land if your navigation for as 0:14:56.800 --> 0:15:00.000 long as it's feasible, right. And it's also usually can 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:04.040 cosidered important to arrive at your destination during the daytime 0:15:04.360 --> 0:15:08.800 because one of the great perils actually of Pacific navigation 0:15:09.280 --> 0:15:13.520 is accidentally missing your target in the dark. If you 0:15:13.560 --> 0:15:16.000 sail past the island in the dark and you don't 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.520 realize you've done it, that can be uh that that 0:15:18.560 --> 0:15:21.440 could be a death sentence. So it's kind of interesting 0:15:21.520 --> 0:15:24.160 while you're out on the open ocean, navigating at night 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:26.640 is ideal. That's you know, where you get these accurate 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:30.920 guide stars. But I think it's often considered good to 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:33.960 leave the island during the daytime and to arrive at 0:15:34.000 --> 0:15:37.120 your destination during the daytime. And sometimes uh. And there 0:15:37.200 --> 0:15:39.360 might be some exceptions to that, but those seem to 0:15:39.400 --> 0:15:42.560 be some general principles that were observed at least that 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.240 Lewis mentioned and uh. And so that would require very 0:15:46.240 --> 0:15:48.480 careful timing of the journey, right, Like you need to 0:15:48.480 --> 0:15:50.800 know pretty much exactly how long it's going to take, 0:15:50.840 --> 0:15:53.320 how many days, so that you can time it out 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:56.280 like that. And just as one example about the dangers 0:15:56.360 --> 0:15:59.960 of missing an island at night, uh, the Lewis talk 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.480 about at least one of the navigators he worked with 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.680 having a practice of when you're getting close to the 0:16:05.760 --> 0:16:08.960 island and it's really dark out, sometimes they would just 0:16:09.120 --> 0:16:12.400 stop sailing. They would slow down. They would uh it's 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:14.560 called heaving to you know, they would heave to to 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.320 slow the progress of the boat, just to be super 0:16:17.360 --> 0:16:21.120 careful that they didn't accidentally, say, sail between two islands 0:16:21.200 --> 0:16:24.280 unnoticed in the middle of the night. But while the 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:27.600 nighttime star navigation is the most accurate thing to use, 0:16:27.640 --> 0:16:30.320 there are clues you can use for navigation in the 0:16:30.400 --> 0:16:33.400 daytime as well. For example, you can use the sun. 0:16:33.480 --> 0:16:36.200 It's more difficult to use the sun, but it can 0:16:36.320 --> 0:16:38.840 be done. Uh. And it's more difficult for a number 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:40.800 of reasons. First of all, there's only one of it, 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:44.640 and its position can vary a lot over the seasons. Right, 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.160 Unlike the stars, the relative position of the Sun on 0:16:48.200 --> 0:16:51.000 the horizon of Earth has a lot more variability. But 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:53.840 even with the seasonal variability of the Sun's position, you 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.600 can still use it to navigate by pairing it with 0:16:57.720 --> 0:17:01.240 external reference to the stars. And this was one of 0:17:01.240 --> 0:17:04.200 the many moments in this book. It gave me that like, oh, 0:17:04.400 --> 0:17:06.640 of course kind of feeling, and this was one of them. 0:17:06.720 --> 0:17:10.240 So uh So, Lewis writes at one point about another 0:17:10.280 --> 0:17:13.600 scholar who had been writing about Pacific navigation uh named 0:17:13.640 --> 0:17:17.200 acre Blom. He says, quote acre Blom surprisingly asserts that 0:17:17.480 --> 0:17:20.520 to achieve a satisfactory degree of accuracy when checking the 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.800 course by means of the bearing of the rising or 0:17:22.800 --> 0:17:27.160 setting sun, the Polynesian navigator must necessarily have had access 0:17:27.480 --> 0:17:30.399 to some form of memorized table of the changes in 0:17:30.440 --> 0:17:33.480 the sun's asimuth. So it's you know, changes in rising 0:17:33.480 --> 0:17:36.639 and setting patterns over the seasons. But contrary to that, 0:17:37.480 --> 0:17:40.240 Lewis says, all the navigator actually needs, of course, are 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:43.240 his eyes and a knowledge of the stars. The sun 0:17:43.400 --> 0:17:46.399 star comparison could be made twice in each day if 0:17:46.440 --> 0:17:48.520 one were so minded. So when the sun is rising 0:17:48.600 --> 0:17:52.520 or setting, you can check its orientation with respect to 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:55.280 the stars that appear, you know, before or after it, 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:58.040 and then you can basically know where on the horizon 0:17:58.119 --> 0:18:05.600 it is rising or setting at this time of er. Wow. Yeah. 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.800 Now there are other methods of maintaining course setting during 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:14.040 the daytime that are again more difficult than the nighttime, 0:18:14.040 --> 0:18:16.520 but still possible. And another method that I thought was 0:18:16.560 --> 0:18:21.840 really interesting was steering by ocean swells. And there are 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.800 actually two different uses here. Um, So there's one thing, 0:18:24.840 --> 0:18:28.320 which is navigation by swells in the open water. So 0:18:28.359 --> 0:18:31.800 if you're out you know no side of land anywhere nearby, 0:18:31.920 --> 0:18:35.680 you can use ocean swells to help you do direction finding, 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:37.520 just like you would use the sun or the stars. 0:18:38.200 --> 0:18:40.840 But in addition to that, using the swells is actually 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:44.200 a land finding technique. It changes in how the ocean 0:18:44.240 --> 0:18:47.240 swells are affected by nearby land masses can be used 0:18:47.240 --> 0:18:50.560 to locate islands that are nearby, and this is something 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:52.840 we'll probably talk about more in the next part of 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:55.960 this of this series. But what does it mean to 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.520 steer by swells in the daytime. Well swells are permanent 0:19:00.560 --> 0:19:05.280 wave patterns with specific cardinal origin points, which are associated 0:19:05.320 --> 0:19:08.719 not with waves kicked up by transient weather, but with 0:19:08.920 --> 0:19:14.360 strong and persistent wind patterns associated with specific permanent weather systems, 0:19:14.640 --> 0:19:18.520 for example, the trade winds or what or what A 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.879 Louis calls the Southern Ocean belt of strong Westerly's. Yeah, 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.280 and I think we can sort of loosely imagine like 0:19:26.320 --> 0:19:29.720 a recreation of a basic form of this, you know, 0:19:29.880 --> 0:19:32.159 some sort of a model or a simulation. If you 0:19:32.200 --> 0:19:34.560 had a body of water and you had say a 0:19:34.600 --> 0:19:38.879 fan or something creating some sort of you know, disturbance 0:19:38.920 --> 0:19:42.280 across the surface, and it it was regular, what would 0:19:42.280 --> 0:19:44.760 happen if you then dropped some islands in there? It 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:48.480 could disrupt the waves, especially in if we were talking 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.720 in in the actual ocean, in the form of long 0:19:51.760 --> 0:19:56.199 ocean waves as they bend around land masses, and and 0:19:56.280 --> 0:19:59.160 this wave disruption can be identified by a skilled eye 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:03.159 enable them to detect land hundreds of kilometers wave and 0:20:03.200 --> 0:20:05.879 which is is pretty amazing, right, And so that's the 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:09.040 kind that would be used specifically for the land finding, right, 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:12.240 But you can also use the c swells, like you 0:20:12.240 --> 0:20:15.560 would use the stars to get directional orientation to know 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:19.080 which direction is north southeast or west without a compass, 0:20:19.119 --> 0:20:23.080 because if you know basically what direction a c swell 0:20:23.119 --> 0:20:27.280 that is permanent and reliable comes from, you can detect 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:32.480 that swell and then no, okay, that way is south southeast. Right. 0:20:32.600 --> 0:20:34.879 So so now we have not only the stars above, 0:20:35.240 --> 0:20:39.760 but also uh the wave patterns the CEA swells as well. Right, 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:43.040 So these permanent weather patterns, they originate in a fairly 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:47.160 consistent direction from your location. Now, part of the ignorant 0:20:47.200 --> 0:20:49.960 land dweller in me is just incredulous here, right, Like 0:20:50.040 --> 0:20:52.000 when I'm out in a boat on the ocean, waves 0:20:52.080 --> 0:20:55.080 seem utterly random to me. I could not I could 0:20:55.080 --> 0:20:58.200 not identify that waves are coming from a particular direction. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:01.040 And you know, but they're well, unless it's coming from 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:03.800 a ski do right then you write motor boat that's coming. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:06.640 By then it's pretty clear what's creating the distraction. That's 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.479 a good point. But you know, just the general choppy 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.440 wave patterns of the ocean, I wouldn't have any idea 0:21:12.480 --> 0:21:14.919 what to do. But if you are trained in knowing 0:21:14.960 --> 0:21:19.240 what to look for, you actually can identify particular wave 0:21:19.359 --> 0:21:23.800 patterns or swell patterns. Lewis actually makes a distinction between 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:26.879 waves and swells um but but they're not just random. 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.280 The system of orientation based on swells is not as 0:21:31.280 --> 0:21:35.080 reliable as the stars, but it's still pretty reliable. So 0:21:35.240 --> 0:21:38.240 the question would be, well, how do you detect them? 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.680 One interesting fact is that the navigators Lewis learned from 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:45.520 seemed to consult the swells based on feeling them in 0:21:45.560 --> 0:21:49.800 the body more so than looking at them, which means 0:21:49.880 --> 0:21:52.199 that they can be used to steer not only in 0:21:52.240 --> 0:21:56.000 the daytime, but on overcast nights. So when the stars 0:21:56.040 --> 0:21:59.840 are completely hidden that's your main orientation tool gone, and 0:21:59.840 --> 0:22:03.520 there's no light to see, you could still potentially feel 0:22:03.720 --> 0:22:08.919 the directional swells and get an orientation based on that. Wow, 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.720 that's interesting and it makes perfect sense. So how do 0:22:11.760 --> 0:22:14.760 you feel swells? Well, there's a part in Lewis's book 0:22:14.760 --> 0:22:17.080 where he talks about this. He says, quote T. K 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:19.919 told me he would sometimes retire to the hut on 0:22:19.960 --> 0:22:23.359 his canoes out rigger platform, where he could lie down 0:22:23.560 --> 0:22:27.119 and without distraction, more readily direct the helmsman onto the 0:22:27.160 --> 0:22:30.919 proper course. By analyzing the role and pitch of the 0:22:31.000 --> 0:22:35.960 vessel as it cork screwed over the waves. In distinguishing swells, 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:39.200 he stressed, you have to wait patiently until the one 0:22:39.320 --> 0:22:43.040 you want has a spell of being prominent and discernible. 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:45.280 So there is a lot of noise in the waves, right, 0:22:45.280 --> 0:22:48.000 So there's a lot of conflicting, you know, wave wave 0:22:48.040 --> 0:22:52.200 action coming in different directions. But there's a certain pattern 0:22:52.600 --> 0:22:56.520 you can recognize from a known swell, And once there's 0:22:56.560 --> 0:22:58.720 a there's the right kind of timing in the wave 0:22:58.800 --> 0:23:01.200 action for you to IDENTI find the pattern of that 0:23:01.240 --> 0:23:05.080