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from the we-don't-need-no-stinking-maps dept.
For the whole of human history, we have been voyagers. What's over the next hill; on the other side of the valley; beyond the forest? Finding the way back home, on the other hand, is more difficult. And so we learned to pay attention to our surroundings: landmarks, mountains, rivers, the direction of the sun. But when most of that is not available? For our brave ancestors who voyaged on the ocean beyond view of land, how did they keep track of their heading and position? Nainoa Thompson explains it:
The star compass is the basic mental construct for navigation. We have Hawaiian names for the houses of the stars – the place where they come out of the ocean and go back into the ocean. If you can identify the stars as they rise and set, and if you have memorized where they rise and set, you can find your direction.
The star compass also reads the flight path of birds and the direction of waves. It does everything. It is a mental construct to help you memorize what you need to know to navigate.
You cannot look up at the stars and tell where you are. You only know where you are in this kind of navigation by memorizing where you sailed from. That means constant observation. You have to constantly remember your speed, your direction and time. You don't have a speedometer. You don't have a compass. You don't have a watch. It all has to be done in your head. It is easy-in principle-but it's hard to do.
The memorization process is very difficult. Consider that you have to remember those three things for a month-every time you change course, every time you slow down. This mental construct of the star compass with its Hawaiian names is from Mau [Ed's Comment: The author's teacher]. The genius of this construct is that it compacts a lot information and enables you to make decisions based on that information.
How do we tell direction? We use the best clues that we have. We use the sun when it is low down on the horizon. Mau has names for the different widths and the different colors of the sun's path on the water. When the sun is low, the path is narrow, and as the sun rises the path gets wider and wider. When the sun gets too high you cannot tell where it has risen. You have to use other clues.
Sunrise is the most important part of the day. At sunrise you start to look at the shape of the ocean-the character of the sea. You memorize where the wind is coming from. The wind generates the waves. You analyze the character of the waves. When the sun gets too high, you steer by the waves. And then at sunset you repeat the process. The sun goes down-you look at the shape of the waves. Did the wind direction change? Did the swell pattern change? At night we use the stars. We use about 220, memorizing where they come up, where they go down.
When it gets cloudy and you can't use the sun or the stars all you can do is rely on the ocean waves. That's why Mau told me once, "If you can read the ocean you will never be lost." One of the problems is that when the sky gets black at night under heavy clouds you cannot see the waves. You cannot even see the bow of the canoe. This is where traditional navigators like Mau are so skilled. Lying inside the hull of the canoe, he can feel the different wave patterns as they come to the canoe, and from them tell the canoe's direction. I can't do that. I think that's what he started learning when he was a child with his grandfather, when he was placed in tide pools to feel the ocean.
And some people still do it today.
The US Naval Academy seems to think it's a good idea too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @05:11AM
There's a straightforward way to navigate between islands without any particular instruments, Europeans eventually used sextants, but a sharp eye and experience is sufficient. Use the stars (altitude of Polaris in Northern Hemisphere and others) to travel due north or south to the correct latitude. Then turn east or west (you have to know which way in advance) and then follow along a line of constant latitude until you see the clouds over the island (as discussed in a previous post).
It's kind of long since you are taking the two legs of a spherical "right triangle", but pretty much guaranteed to work unless you get blown far off the desired headings by a storm.
I believe it's well established that the Polynesians had regular trade routes long before any type of modern navigation.