Mine is the migrating bird,
winging far over remote oceans
Ever pointing out the sea road of the Black Heron
The dark cloud in the sky of night
It is the road of the winds, coursed by the sea kings
to unknown lands
Last week we talked about the great distances and dangers
of the Pacific Ocean
And how, even today, it is hard to conceive of its vast empty spaces
But we also mentioned that, to the voyagers of the Pacific
it didn't seem that empty at all
To them, it was full of landmarks, from the sun and moon, to stars
currents, clouds, debris, fish
and birds, whose behavior could help them locate islands
even if they were previously unknown to humans
This discipline is called "Wayfinding", a term that encompases
both celestial navigation, as well as knowledge of the natural world
it can not only determine direction but also
provide clues about the presence of land
And it was these techniques and advanced sailing technologies
that allowed the Austronesian-speaking peoples and the cultures that evolved from them
to settle maritime Southeast Asia and the Pacific
So who were the Austronesians?
Well to put it simply, the Austronesian are less an ethnicity and more of a language group
A series of people across Asia
and the Pacific, whose languages derived
from an older Austronesian root language
And who also have various cultural markers
like petroglyphs, stilt houses, and boat building styles
Today, people speaking Austronesian languages
can be found from Taiwan all the way to Hawaii and Sri Lanka
And, according to the mainstream hypotheses,
pre-Austronesians even settled Taiwan during the Neolithic period
Then, roughly between 3000
and 1500 BCE, those Austronesians
made their first voyages out of Taiwan
south to the Philippines
And this kickstarted a multi-millennia series of voyages
where the Austronesians and the cultures that followed them
settled all of maritime Southeast Asia
then struck east into Melanesia and Micronesia
And the, by about 1000 to 1200CE
they had arrived into the farthest flung parts of Polynesia, Hawaii
Raspa Nui and New Zealand
On the way, they fragmented and changed, forming a large number of societies
we have already talked about on this show
From the Champa kingdoms in our Angkor wat series
to the Javanese of Majapahit
Indeed, several waves of migration would overlap each other in Micronesia
and Melanesia, creating a diverse and varried array of cultures
Some scholars think these migrations were due to political
or religious conflicts, while others suggest that
it was a measure to deal with overpopulation
When an island got too crowded, you just sent out
ships to find and colonize another
But whatever the reason, they kept sailing east
A direction that was, incredibly, mostly against the prevailing winds
A feat that would have been much more difficult if not for a revolutionary sail design
known as the Crab Claw Sail
Crab Claws are type of triangular sail that widens at the top
supported by 2 spars
And, although these sails themselves would become modified at various places in the Pacific
The basic premise remains the same
It is an extremely high sail with the largest part further off the water
where the wind is strongest and where it can catch gusts
even when between swells
They also have the advantage of spilling the wind when hit by a sudden gust
preventing damage in the middle of an ocean voyage
And while not as efficient or versatile as later sailing rigs
for its time, the Crab Claw was the top of its class
But concentrating all of that wind at the top of the sail
meant the ship needed to be wide so it wouldn't capsize
Which is why all of the canoes using them were either double-hulled or had an outrigger
Voyaging Canoes were generally double-hulled
giving the craft a wide stable beam
while still maximizing speed, by keeping the 2 hulls narrow and with shallow draft
Helmsmen controlled the craft with a single steering oar in the rear
And, because the hull is the same front and back
the craft can run in reverse, just by turning the sails around
The canoe hulls themselves, and the wide deck between them
could carry large amounts of cargo
about 11,000 pounds (5000kg) in a 60 foot vessel (18m) including crew
Meaning, it could stock enough food for long voyages
And this often included livestock such as pigs, chickens,
domesticated dogs and food crops that could be planted
upon their arrival on a new island
But OK, now you're wondering, and rightfully so
if we have an ocean-going canoe
that can survive unknown Pacific and run fast on the trade winds
how do you figure out where you're trying to go?
Especially if you're hoping to discover a new island
Enter "Wayfinding"
As the chant that began this episode illustrates
The Pacific voyagers didn't consider the ocean to be an empty space
Instead, it was the road of the winds
a complex landscape of currents and gyres that could be read by touch
and form a map when combined with the stars
and the prevailing wind patterns
At its simplest, it can mean orientating a canoe by landmarks
For instance, in Hawaii, the name of a particular channel, between two of the islands
literally translates to "the road to Tahiti."
Because voyagers could sail to the channel
take bearings and get a straight line path to Tahiti
2600 miles (4200km) away
Sailing in a straight line however, is almost never possible due to weather conditions
But this would at least get a navigator a navigator off on the right heading
They would then have to use the natural world as a compass
Orienting themselves by the rising and setting of the sun
the position of the moon, the planets
and particularly the stars
In the Northern Hemisphere, the chief orientation point was
Polaris, otherwise known as the North Star, as it was
the only one who wouldn't move
But Polaris is not visible in the Southern Hemisphere
so there, navigators would determine South
via taking a mental mesurement
to a point slightly to the right of a constellation called the "Southern Cross" (Crux Australis)
Other stars could indicate waypoints as well
For example: in the latitude of Hawaii
the star Arcturus lays directly overhead
Therefore, voyagers trying to map their way home to the islands
would simply go to the point where the star was at its zenith
But of course stars move depending on the time of year
so this meant that Pacific navigators coud not simple memorize one position of the stars,
they had to memorize how the appeared at every time of the year
Navigators would construct
A sort of star-map in their head
with the canoe in the center and the sky divided into quadrants around it
an absolutely monumental task
that required years of study
In Micronesia, this memorization process might be done
on star charts made of sticks and shells
discarded once a navigator went to sea
But in Polynesia it was taught through chants, songs
and stories with mnemonic devices
and these mind maps could be extensive
For instance, when James Cook made his voyage from Tahiti to New Zealand
he took along with him the Tahitian navigator and priest Tupaia
as a translator and guide
and when asked to draw a map of the Pacific
Tupaia crafted a chart that recorded 130 islands
within a 2000 mile (3200km) radius of Tahiti
Navigators could also use the rocking of the canoe or a hand in the water
to read ocean currents or wave patterns
And in certain conditions, the clouds could betray the presence of land
even when if lay over the horizon, out of range of sight
and this is because clouds build up in specific formations
around high mountainous islands, indicating their positions
while the lagoon center of a low-laying atoll
could also reflect on the underside of a cloud layer
And then of course there was debris, such as floating plant matter or coconuts
when washed out to sea, that could also indicate an island nearby
But the best indicator was the wildlife
While certain types of fish become more abudant near land
it was the seabirds that provided the greatest clues
Pacific navigators understood the flight ranges of native birds
as well as their behaviours
Sighting a fisher bird streaking by in the morning,
a navigator could be certain it had flown away from the shore to hunt
and if they turned their canoe toward where it came from
they had a pretty good change they'd find land
Alternately, a navigator might see a bird flying with a fish in its beak
and in that case, it was definitely going back to shore to feed its young
so they could simply follow it
Indeed some full voyages may have simply followed the path of migratory birds
reasoning that large groups of birds
were not simply streaming out to commit suicide in the middle of the ocean
and that they were going somewhere
And the really cool thing to think is, if that is true it would
mean that the early Pacific explorers were the first
to navigate the world using the Earth's electromagnetic field
Though admittedly, through some of our feathered friends
But what happened when these early explorers did find a new island?
What kind of societies did they build?
And how did they differ from place to place?
Well, you're in luck! Because next time
we break down the settlement of the Pacific, step by step
talking about the wide variety of cultures the Austronesians spawned
From the island societies that built great structures and canals from stone
to the statues of Rapa Nui and the Maori of New Zealand
and the two waves of migrations that colonized the most remote island on Earth
Hawaii
A big legendary thanks to: Ahmed Ziad Turk, Alicia Bramble, Casey Muscha, Dominic Valenciana, Gunnar Clovis, Kyle Murgatroyd and Orels1