Massive
Double Hulled Voyaging Canoes
The
great Pacific Ocean had been mastered by the ancestors of the
Polynesians well before 2,500 BC. The canoes were constructed
as a community project led by master craftsmen, and guided to
their destinations by an elite fraternity of navigators, taught
from childhood to read nautical information in a host of natural
phenomena. They knew the year round positions of more than 150
strars and had a vast knowledge of ocean currents, prevailing
winds and the habits of migratory birds.
From The Pacific Navigators Time Life Books
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