NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Traditional Polynesian 'location indicators'
From: Rodney Myrvaagnes
Date: 2004 Feb 22, 19:36 -0500
From: Rodney Myrvaagnes
Date: 2004 Feb 22, 19:36 -0500
On Sun, 22 Feb 2004 20:40:33 +1100, Peter Fogg wrote: >If many of the methods used by Polynesian navigators make immediate sense to >us there may be others that remain baffling. Their oral sailing directions >handed down (sometimes as a song - more easily memorized) often included >'signposts' to be expected in a specific location, typically a sea creature >or bird that appears when needed. > Only recently has it become possible to attach transmitters to migratory birds and sea creatures. Some of them do seem to have regular patterns of migration, and that includes, IIRC, some species of Pacific albatross. Some whale populations now have known migration patterns, including the Massachussetts humpback herd and the California grays. Do any of these traditional instructions call for specific tme of year? Rodney Myrvaagnes Opinionated old geezer "It is, of course, quite true that no great amount of skill is required to navigate a ship most of the time, and on those less frequent occasions when a higher level of competence is desirable luck may suffice. If that runs out there is always insurance..." __The late Captain Richard Cahill