A navigator," said Tom Davis (Pa Tuterangi Ariki), "is travelling in an upside-down bowl of the sky sitting on the sea. It is full of clues as to the direction and the maintenance of that direction. The (modern) compass has blinded most of us to their existence and how they may be used."
Discovering New Lands
 The Polynesian Sextant (titiro etu)
The Polynesian navigating Tohunga, (or at least some of them), used a sextant which was made from a coconut shell cut across at a slanting angle with a hole at the low end, and a notch at the top end, and a number of holes encircling it. These sat above a wavy line representing the ocean and underneath an arch of ten stars evenly spaced. The coconut shell was filled with seawater to the ring of the holes. Coconut oil was used to preserve the surface tension of the seawater and, (within reason), to prevent leakage from the ring of holes.
Tom Davis spent some time in working out just how one of these was actually used. It turned out that the gourd instrument performed as a "Star Latitude Sailing method to "run down" one's destination, which is the same as a Sun Latitude Sailing method. One did not need a chronometer, nor did one need a declination table because all star declinations are fixed... All one has to know is that a particular altitude of star obtained by the titiro etu put's one's canoe on the same east west track as one's destination. Keep the canoe on that track and one will run into one's destination" (Tom Davis).
So "what we have" (writes Sir Tom), "is an artificial horizon built into the instrument, just like a bubble sextant. Now peek through the eye hole to the object hole or notch higher up and on the other side of the instrument. Wiggle the instrument around until one sees the star in the object hole. Follow it by intermittent sightings as it ascends until it reaches it's highest point...
Now look at the status of the artificial horizon. In this example, both the the destination and the reference star are to the north. If the seawater of the artificial horizon is above that of the ring of holes directly under the object hole, the canoe has not yet reached a point directly east (or west as the case may be) and one must continue one's course. Alternatively, if the star is below the object hole when the sea water is in line with all the holes, we also have not reached the latitude of our destination.
When the star is in the object aperture and the water of the artificial horizon is in line with all the holes of the ring of holes, one has reached that point where the canoe can be aimed directly east (or west...) and the destination can be 'run down'."
~~~
I am quoting him rather a lot so I should introduce Tom Davis to you rather better. Sir Tom Davis (Pa Tuterangi Ariki) was born in Rarotonga and was the first Cook Islander to qualify as a medical doctor in New Zealand. He also became the first Cook Islander to attend Harvard University, sailing to the USA from New Zealand in his yacht with his family on board.
He headed medical programmes in Alaska and the Himalayas, and managed medical research for a US consulting firm, qualified as a space surgeon and had a leading role in developing the US space programme.
In 1971 he returned to the Cook Islands where he became involved in politics and was Prime Minister there from 1978 - 1987. He was awarded the Order of Merit of Germany in 1979 and knighted by the Queen of England in 1980.
In later life he also wrote a couple of books, coached a Cook Islands boxing team and designed and built an ocean-going canoe/waka.
I reckon he probably knows what he is talking about.
~~~
David (drafair) mentioned the Viking Sailors using "caged birds which when released, if they didn't return indicated the presence of land nearby, also whales, sea animals" etc; (in the comments under Polynesian Navigators and Adventurers: Part One). Polynesian Navigation used similar techniques.
Birds
Polynesian Navigating Tohunga were familiar with patterns of bird migration which was helpful in the search for and discovery of new lands.
For example, the time and direction of the West Polynesian pigeon’s annual migration was known and followed by navigators between Tonga and Samoa. Ancestors of the Maori could also have speculated that a place such as New Zealand existed from observing every spring the long-tailed cuckoo and shining cuckoo flying south from the islands of Melanesia and Polynesia and then returning in the autumn.
Land is also signalled by birds flying out to sea at sunrise to fish whom will then return to their nests at sunset. Frigate birds will fly up to 100km from land, gannets and petrels 70km, and terns up to 50km.
Whales
At the beginning of each winter the humpback and other whale species travel in multiple family groups, or pods, as they migrate north from Antarctica to the Pacific. Some pass along the west coast of New Zealand into the waters of Vanuatu and New Caledonia. Some travel along both sides of the country toward Tonga and Samoa, while others pass the east coast to Rarotonga and Tahiti. In November and December, the whales return south to Antarctica.
Early Polynesian navigators and explorers realised that by following these whale pods they would be led to land as whales will typically calve in the calmer waters off atolls, islands or larger land masses. Whales would have been easy to follow because they are not that fast. Their rate of travel, at only three to five knots, is well within the cruising speed of a double-hulled canoe/waka.
According to some Maori oral traditions, whales guided canoes to New Zealand, and in one tradition the ancestor Paikea is even said to have arrived on one. Paikea's name originally was Kahutiaterangi; he received the name Paikea because he came to Aotearoa on the back of the paikea (whale). The NZ book (written by Witi Ihimaera) and the film The Whale Rider are based on this tradition.
The time when whales migrate south coincides with the appearance of those stars and planets that are most useful for navigating to New Zealand – the setting sun, Kopu (Venus), Te Waka o Tamarereti (Scorpio), and Mahutonga (the Southern Cross).
The Stars - which have already been mentioned but...
Once a canoe/waka had got closer to land, zenith stars that at their highest point will shine directly over known islands were also useful for locating land. These are known to be used by Tongan, Tahitian and Tikopian navigators. Arcturus is the zenith star for Hawai'i, and Sirius for both Ra‘iatea in Tahiti and Vanua Levu in Fiji. Navigators positioned their canoes immediately beneath their target star, knowing that this would place them within 80km of the destination island.
Measuring the height of meridian stars (stars on the same longitude) above the horizon using fingers and hands was a useful method for finding land. Polynesian sailors were guided by meridian stars like the Southern Cross. For instance, from Hawai'i the bottom of the upright Southern Cross is four fingers above the horizon; sailing south it increases to one full hand span at the equator, and two hand spans when approaching the latitude of Tahiti.
Clouds
The shape, movement and colour of clouds were important land indicators. Convection clouds build up during the day over large islands, becoming higher, thicker, darker and slower moving than clouds over the sea. Cloud over high islands such as Tahiti and Hawaii can be seen from 150km away. Small, characteristically eyebrow-shaped clouds that form over small atolls can be seen up to 50km away. A reef is indicated by pinkish cloud, and the cloud base over forested islands is dark or green. If cloud is noticed to be unusually bright, it means that sunlight is being reflected off atoll lagoons and projected onto the cloud base.
Incidentally Aotearoa means the "Land of the Long White Cloud".
Land swell
Experienced navigators can use distinctive land-swell patterns which form when sea swells strike land, to determine the location of land long before it is visible. Land-swell patterns have two distinctive forms. In one, waves take shape when the prevailing swell strikes an island and bounces back on itself. Bounce-back waves can be detected 50km away from small islands, and up to 300km away from land masses the size of Aotearoa/New Zealand. In the other land-swell form, patterns are created when a swell divides and curls around an island. The navigating Tohunga could detect the confused wave pattern or shadow of turbulence at some distance.
The Sea
The sea itself provides useful markers for navigation. Changes in colour, the presence of certain fish species, ocean currents, the "scent of land" and the appearance of whirlpools were all important signs. Debris such as driftwood and leaves often suggested nearby land, and floating rubbish signalled that settlement was close.
To be continued:
 | I tell you what Iri.......by the time you finish this series on navigation, I'll be able to sail my way around the world......now....next series suggestion ...boat building....so I can build a boat to sail in.......... |
 | funny you should mention boat building... |
 | Well this was a fascinating read. Imagine someone figuring all of this out, and using it to navigate the oceans. Unbelievable. I'm so impressed! |
| I was impressed with them too, which is why I am writing about them. I think they were brilliant. |
 | Ifik and ducktastic in one boat! That would make the stars twinkle!
I love this series you are writing, Iri, and you are correctly honouring Sir Tom - and those wonderful navigators - using what Kipling called "the tools that lie under the hand!" Wonderful! C |
 | Absolutely amazing!
It's a good thing nobody depends on me to figure stuff like this out!
I get lost once the sun sets and I can't see the Mountains! |
| Been too busy shopping for self and sick neighbour, doing the washing and getting two lots dry in (pleasant) wind! Now going to blog same short story on both sites, read all my emails cook dinner, watch Question time and then BED Am exhausted. Shall move these lovely maori accounts of yours all into one folder now britte has tidied up my chaos on PC LOL |
 | More fascinating stuff. Thought you might be interested in a snippet of information I picked up from a recent documentary about people attempting to rediscover and attempt the great journeys of these polynesians peoples : As Cook sailed from Tahiti in 1768 on board his ship was a Tahitian navigator named Tupaia. Tupaia guided Cook 300 miles south to Rurutu, a small Polynesian island, Cook was amazed to find that Tupaia could always point in the exact direction in which Tahiti lay, without the use of the ship's charts. Unlike later visitors to the South Pacific, Cook did understood and appreciate that Polynesian navigators could guide canoes across the Pacific over great distances, sadly Tupaia and many of Cooks crew died of malaria in the east indies.
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Comment deleted at the request of the author.
| Sorry ! IRI Something cropped up and couldnt do it Will try in small hours GMT But now QUESTIONTIME I can yell at the TV Screen about the Budget the government Bush, anybody i like!!!!!!!! |
 | amazing! thanks for sharing. Interesting how all of this used to navigate. |
 | Modern day people always seem to forget that our ancestors were every bit as intelligent as we are, probably more so, as their were fewer safety nets back then, it was easier for the accident prone to suffer mightily back then. They used their brains to do incredible things. I reckon that put in their place I wouldn't be capable of even 10% of the things they did. |
 | I"m gobsmacked to say the least. I know man has evolved and we've learned new things all the time, but I am in awe of these so-called primitive people and times.
I know that I find the sky incredibly amazing and awe inspiring when we go away camping. We're away from the city lights that dull the stars. Out in the country with no streetlights to kill the starlight, it's amazing how far you can see and how much depth there is to the Milky Way. No wonder they could navigate by them. It's where all the modern technology comes from, but as I get older and more interested in these things, I find it so much more fascinating than when I was younger. I'm just too lazy to search for these things, and therefore enjoy your blogs all the more, Iri.
These people had not much in the way of 'written' skills. Hence the shell navigators grid. So to have moved from one land to another just by the stars, or by whales is beyond my simple modern mind. I have others to think for me. Bring me more |
| oh...and I didn't read other posts before I started typing. I can see blackwatch said much the same as I but in a less verbose way.....never mind...tis Friday after all *winks* |
 | I too find this fascinating reading Iri, I recall the settler series you did on 360 as well - that was very addictive to read. |
| Jane thank you, I guess I just write about what interests me and hope I don't bore you all to death lol. |
 | Awesome read, can't wait for the next installment |
| It's best when people write about what interests them ... their involvement comes through and captures others. |
 | This is a pretty good tutorial. In my works we use the "fat-finger" as a slang for a guess-timate. I wonder if term was originated by Hawaiians trying to find Tahiti by measuring 10 fingers from the horizon to the Southern Cross :) |
| Jane is so right - about any kind of writing, but especially truly gripping historical accounts like Iri's. |
| Thank you Chrissie. You know, my favourite bit of researching and writing this blog was the discovery of that coconut sextant. It was in Tom Davis's book because it was a genuine thing which had been handed down in his family and when he got it he had no idea of how to use it and it took him quite a while to figure out how it was used. The drawing came also from his book which is why it is not of the greatest quality (those grey lines across it are actually the words on the next page) but it was the only picture of such a thing that I could find anywhere. |
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I get lost once the sun sets and I can't see the Mountains! 