09-28-2011
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Senior Member
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Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Liberty Landing
Posts: 356
Rep Power: 1
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The wave/bird/cloud formation method was only used once they got close to the island using other navigational techniques. They could generally use stellar navigation to get very close, but would need other methods to hone in on the exact location of the island they were voyaging to. Waves/swells were followed even when well out to sea but in a form of dead reckoning. If cloud cover was obscuring stars or the sun, they could stay on course for several hours by keeping their boat at the same angle to the swells, hopefully long enough to catch a glimpse of a helpful star in between the cloud cover.
One of my favorite stories is that of the famed blind navigator who could divine the location of his canoe just by "feeling" the water. Most historians think that by the time he got old and blind his apprentices, who had vision, could do most of the work and tell him where they were. But the chief of his tribe thought he was some kind of miraculous navigator, and stories about him still abound in western culture.
Although many of the greatest migrations were done in narrow beamed catamarans, lots of voyaging was done in proas, which I find absolutely intriguing. A great book about pacific island proas and culture generally on a micronesian island is "east is a big bird", available softcover on amazon.
A good book on improvised navigational techniques is "low tech navigation". It's also a softcover available on amazon.com.
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