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.
Related Stories
The U.S. Navy is bringing back training in celestial navigation for officers due to fears of over-reliance on the Global Positioning System (GPS):
"Raise your hand if you have ever determined your location on the planet using the stars," Lt. Daniel Stayton tells his class at the U.S. Naval Academy. A young officer halfheartedly puts up her hand. Another wavers. The rest of the class of 20 midshipmen sits stone-faced.
This is the challenge facing the U.S. Navy as it tries to bring back celestial navigation. The Navy stopped training its service members to navigate by the stars about a decade ago, focusing instead on electronic navigational systems. But fears about the security of the Global Positioning System, and a desire to return to the basics of naval training are pushing the fleet back toward this ancient method of finding a course across open water.
[...] So, why return now to the old ways? The Navy and other branches of the U.S. military are becoming increasingly concerned, in part, that they may be overly reliant on GPS. "We use it to synchronize all military operations, we use it to navigate everywhere — it's just something the U.S. military can't live without," says Brian Weeden, a former Air Force officer now with the Secure World Foundation, a nonprofit that studies security issues in outer space. In a big war, the GPS satellites could be shot down. Or, more likely, their signal could be jammed or hacked. Already, jamming has become more common, Weeden says. "You can buy a lot of GPS jammers off the Internet," he says. "A lot of those are made by Russia." He thinks the Russians probably have systems to jam the special signals the military uses as well. And China may be developing similar capabilities.
[Continues.]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @08:54PM
Walked out of camp one moonless, clear night and proceeded to get turned around in second-growth pine trees. Like some ethnic jokes, they all look the same! Found a clearing, found Polaris (I was nearly completely turned around) and walked back. Not a big deal, but this was long before GPS and I might have spent a cold night in the woods if I didn't know the most basic bit of celestial navigation.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday December 19 2016, @09:02PM
A reminder for everyone who forgot:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-find-Polaris-the-North-Star/?ALLSTEPS [instructables.com]
http://www.space.com/15567-north-star-polaris.html [space.com]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 1) by EETech1 on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:45PM
This was always one of my favorite stories.
http://www.navworld.com/navcerebrations/mayday.htm [navworld.com]
It's amazing the knowledge that a true navigator has. I used to work with one, and we travelled quite a bit together.
We never got lost, even in foreign countries with no map.
When I got my first Garmin, he laughed at it, and said what a useless waste of money it was:)
(Score: 1) by Francis on Monday December 19 2016, @09:23PM
That works fine in some parts of the country, but around here you're likely to have to walk a very long way in order to see the sky. Which means that if it is so confusing that you get turned around one way, you're probably not going to find the stars very helpful on the way back.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:30PM
but around here you're likely to have to walk a very long way in order to see the sky.
Amazing! Why is that, Francis? Is there no sky where you live? Do you live underground? Or where there is too much light pollution? Or are you a citizen of Flatland, where, since it is two-dimensional, there can be no sky? I hope you do not get turned around too much. And thank you for another extremely interesting and informative post. I know so much more about voyaging wherever it is that you live than I did before!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @10:55PM
Maybe he lives in Michigan.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 20 2016, @03:35AM
Good luck seeing the sky if you live in a part of the world with lots of these things called trees.
I get that you're mad at me for fucking your mother raw so many times, but Jesus Christ Aristarchus, you're just making yourself look even more retarded than you already looked with these comments.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @09:03PM
https://www.ifa.hawaii.edu/friends/Technology_of_Oceania.pdf [hawaii.edu]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @09:10PM
I remember this story from some years ago. Later I think it was determined that the wayfinder was just goofing on the observer and made the whole "angle of the dangle" thing up for his own entertainment.
It was somewhat of a relief when it wasn't mentioned in tfs.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday December 19 2016, @09:31PM
Link to the debunking?
(Score: 2, Funny) by khallow on Monday December 19 2016, @10:22PM
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Monday December 19 2016, @11:13PM
I noticed in the tropics that you just have to look at the clouds to know where islands are, long before you can see the islands themselves. I guess it should be possible to 'see' islands from at least 50 kilometers (~25 nautical miles) away.
(Score: 3, Informative) by deadstick on Tuesday December 20 2016, @01:35AM
Yes indeed. Water has a high reflective coefficient, so it catches little solar energy -- and it has high specific heat, so that energy doesn't raise its temperature much. Land is lower in both properties, so it gets much hotter than the water. That heats air, making it buoyant, and the resulting thermal updraft draws in cool, wet air from the surrounding water. As it goes up in altitude, pressure drops, the air cools to the saturation temperature, and water condenses out.
You could say the island is a solar-powered fog machine.
(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday December 20 2016, @04:06AM
Let's be honest: memorizing your speed and direction, or feeling the waves is way too unreliable for the amount of time investment it takes. If you were dropped off in unfamiliar waters, your decades of hard work would be completely useless. Certain parts of the ocean have deceptive currents; what you think your speed and direction is might be completely wrong. The wind, and the waves do not blow in the same direction, at the same times, everywhere.
In contrast, GPS works with high reliability and requires basically no training. That's progress, bitches. Oh sure, you're relying on existing infrastructure for GPS, but guess what? You always have to rely on something, whether that be the availability of GPS satellites or the stability of ocean currents (spoilers: currents shift), or even landmarks like rivers not moving (spoilers: rivers move). Better to rely on things that we can control (more) than things we cannot.
Join the SDF Public Access UNIX System today!
(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.
(Score: 1) by toddestan on Saturday December 24 2016, @12:49AM
The thing with GPS is that it's not something "we" control, it's something that someone else controls (unless by "we" you meant you are the US military). Sure, use GPS if it's available, but remember it could be shut off at any time. There's no way I would venture out into the middle of the ocean without some other way of navigating beyond using my GPS. It's too bad LORAN was switched off as it was one backup you could use if GPS ever went down for some reason.