We the Navigators

Description

WE THE NAVIGATORS
by David Lewis

This is one of the first books written about Polynesian navigation over great distances without benefit of any instruments except the senses of the navigators. The Polynesians steered by the stars, sun, swell patterns, wind, birds, clouds, phosphorescence in the sea. “The Navigators” began training as soon as they were weened and had to memorize thousands of factors to enable then to reach islands that their ancestors had been traveling to for generations.

This is the classic study of Polynesian navigation by one of the world’s greatest sailors and adventurers. It covers sailing canoes as well as navigation. It includes a glossary of Polynesian terms, latitude and longitude of main island groups, and an essay on variation of star position with latitude. Not to mention numerous stories of voyaging experiences and descriptions of his contact with some of the last of the great Polynesian navigators. Everyone with an interest in native navigation will enjoy and benefit from this book.

This book was the primary motivation for David Burch’s work in emergency navigation begun in the early 80’s, where he extended some these ideas to higher latitudes and developed others. See his book Emergency Navigation in this catalog. SC, 1994 2nd Ed., 442 pgs. SW 1.4 lbs.