Customer Reviews

Ocean in Mind (Kolowalu Books)

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This book sails under false colors. The story of how Hokulea was successfully guided to Tahiti and back is described in the promotional copy as the "rediscovery of an almost forgotten cultural knowledge."

That is not the story that Will Kyselka tells. He tells about how a young Hawaiian, Nainoa Thompson, invented an original method of navigating the open ocean without the direct help of scientific instruments. Kyselka says "without instruments," but that, as we shall see, is not correct.

Sadly, the method used by the ancient Tahitians has been irretrievably lost. We not only do not know how they found their way to Hawaii, we do not even know how accurate they were. We do not even know how accurate they tried to be.

Sailing between any two Pacific Ocean island groups is, in itself, not much of a trick. The Society and the Hawaiian groups each stretch about 1,500 miles, and it would be impossible to sail through them without noticing. From Tahiti, a very general course slightly west of north would ensure hitting the Hawaiian chain. Then you "run your easting down" to get to the good islands.

That is a tedious chore against headwinds, especially in a Polynesian canoe, but not impracticable, as long as the supplies hold out. The ancients were probably a lot better than that, but we don't know. The idea, implied in "An Ocean in Mind," that only a Polynesian or a man with a sextant can successfully cross an ocean is wrong. Until late in the 19th century, few European or North American sailing ship masters knew how to use, or even owned, sextants. The only instruments used on most voyages were compass, chip log and plotting board.

The best scientific navigators were far more sophisticated than the Polynesians, who in turn were vastly ahead of the average sailing ship captain. However, until recently, the scientific navigator had to be able to see the sky. The ancient Polynesian could keep a course in the open sea in any weather.
So could Nainoa Thompson, as he proved in Hokulea's 1980 voyage from Tahiti to Hawaii.
Hokulea was an experiment in practical archaeology of the Polynesian Voyaging Society, dedicated to learning how the ancients crossed the Pacific. Long voyages in large canoes petered out centuries ago.
(The "large canoes" are not very big. Hokulea is about 60 feet long, somewhat longer but much lighter than the ships that brought the English colonists to Jamestown in 1607.)
The difficulties that PVS had with Hokulea enhance our admiration for the ancient Polynesians, but the experiment was not wholly a success. Until modern materials were substituted for lauhala (leaves of the screw pine) and other natural products, Hokulea was not seaworthy even in inshore waters.
Hokulea's first long voyage was navigated by Maui Piailug, from Satawal in the Caroline Islands, a Micronesian, not a Polynesian. He taught Thompson elements of his art, but Thompson does not use Mau's methods.
(Here is one advantage of scientific navigation over non-instrument methods. Scientific navigation can be learned in a few weeks, Mau's method only in many years.)
Kyselka met Thompson when Thompson, a student pursuing a somewhat erratic course of studies at the University of Hawaii, came to the Bishop Museum Planetarium for help in understanding some observations he had made of the night sky.

Thompson had already started working out a system, based on the vaguely understood methods of the ancients, before he studied under Mau. Thompson's eventual method was original and effective, but it was entirely dependent upon instruments.

Though he did not carry a chronometer, compass or even a backstaff on his voyage, Thompson's whole method was based upon a conception of the globe and of the sky that was mapped with instruments. By memorizing the relative positions and rising or setting times of 32 pairs of stars, Thompson could tell his latitude with half a degree or so -- about 30 miles.
While this was a formidable feat of memorization, it has nothing to do with Mau's method, nor could it be much like what Thompson's ancestors did.
At the same time "An Ocean in Mind" was published in 1987, Steve Thomas (yes, the "This Old House" host) published "The Last Navigator," which explained Mau's methods. Thomas's book is a far better introduction to the subject than Kyselka's, although anyone interested in Polynesian voyaging will want to know the story that "An Ocean in Mind" tells.
With instruction from Mau, Thompson also learned to navigate by watching ocean swells. Mau could always detect at least five, Thompson usually no more than three.
This method is probably pretty close to what the ancient mariners did. It is not uniquely Polynesian or Pacific Islander, however. New England fishermen on the Grand Banks did the same thing and were able to find their harbors even in thick fog.
"An Ocean in Mind" is a barebones account of the extremely complicated mental voyage that Nainoa Thompson made. It is also a little bit misleading. But it is an uplifting account for all that.
If there is a moral in the book, it is that people interested in Hawaiian culture must redouble their efforts to conserve the parts of it that are not, like "wayfinding," already lost forever.
2007 update: Hokulea is still voyaging. Early in 2007, it was on its way to Japan, with a ceremonial stop to honor Mau in his home islands. Nainoa Thompson is the recognized leader of Native Hawaiian cultural recovery and a Regent of the University of Hawaii.

This was an excellent book describing how a person taught himself how to navigate using the methods of the ancient Polynesians. If you are interested in how the Polynesians knew there were the islands of Hawaii in the middle of the Pacific and how they navigated to them you will enjoy reading this book. Excellent book on people observing nature and learning to use the observations to accomplish a goal.