82
4 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (1)
The speed of Beale’s voyage confirms the prehistoric feasibility of the Cinnamon
Route. It demonstrates the practicality of using a Halmaherian double-outrigger to
harness the power of a major warm current flowing out of the WPWP to cross vast
ocean distances. The success of Beale’s replica voyage might be seen as providing
indirect support for the claim that Spice Island mariners harnessed the power of
two other major WPWP currents (the Kuro Shio Current and the East Australian
Current) for transoceanic exploration, trading and migration in the northern Pacific
Ocean and for colonizing New Zealand in the southern Pacific.
How much sail early Spice Island double-outriggers carried is unclear. Haddon
and Hornell describe the Halmaherian double-outrigger as double masted. That the
outriggers that sailed the Cinnamon Route had sails is certain for they depended
on monsoonal winds for a fast passage. We have suggested that experiments in the
design and use of sail would have arisen naturally both in the West Pacific Warm
Pool long-distance voyaging nursery and later in sailing the Cinnamon Route. For
swift passage, given the sheer distance without landfall on this ancient trading route
and the associated risks of hypothermia, an effective use of sail would have been
vital. And swift passage under sail would have been as important in sailing the
comparable distance over the long stretch of ocean through which the Kuro Shio
Current drove from the Spice Islands to Southern California.
4.7 Did Spice Island Mariners Follow Another Major Current
from the West Pacific Warm Pool into the Indian Ocean?
We have argued that spice trading was fundamental rather than incidental to the maritime development of the Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesian peoples, that it
was probably a driving factor in their evolution not only from local to regional trading but also to international maritime trading. Spice trading seems almost certainly
to have been the motivation for Spice Islanders developing the sailing and exploration strategy of following at least two of the four major warm currents flowing
out of the WPWP. The first current flowed through the volcanically heated WPWP
to Japan where, we conjecture, Spice Islanders established an early trading colony.
(Evidence for this is discussed in the next chapter.) The second made possible the
establishment of the Cinnamon Route which conveyed spices to Africa from where
they could be transshipped to the Middle East and Europe. Another major current
flowed from the WPWP into the Indian Ocean.
The West Australian Current, as its name suggests, flowed south along the coast
of Western Australia. Our paradigm predicts that Spice Island explorers would also
have followed this current. Exploration and trading often go hand in hand, though
the discovery of new territories does not always result in the opening up of new trading possibilities. For Spice Islanders, a second motivation for exploration seems to
have been the quest for new territories to colonize as safe refuges against the possibility of invasion and tribal defeat. With continual destabilizations in the spice trade,
possibly from 1500 BC, and later local and foreign attempts to wrest spice-growing
4 Transoceanic Trade and Migration (1)
The speed of Beale’s voyage confirms the prehistoric feasibility of the Cinnamon
Route. It demonstrates the practicality of using a Halmaherian double-outrigger to
harness the power of a major warm current flowing out of the WPWP to cross vast
ocean distances. The success of Beale’s replica voyage might be seen as providing
indirect support for the claim that Spice Island mariners harnessed the power of
two other major WPWP currents (the Kuro Shio Current and the East Australian
Current) for transoceanic exploration, trading and migration in the northern Pacific
Ocean and for colonizing New Zealand in the southern Pacific.
How much sail early Spice Island double-outriggers carried is unclear. Haddon
and Hornell describe the Halmaherian double-outrigger as double masted. That the
outriggers that sailed the Cinnamon Route had sails is certain for they depended
on monsoonal winds for a fast passage. We have suggested that experiments in the
design and use of sail would have arisen naturally both in the West Pacific Warm
Pool long-distance voyaging nursery and later in sailing the Cinnamon Route. For
swift passage, given the sheer distance without landfall on this ancient trading route
and the associated risks of hypothermia, an effective use of sail would have been
vital. And swift passage under sail would have been as important in sailing the
comparable distance over the long stretch of ocean through which the Kuro Shio
Current drove from the Spice Islands to Southern California.
4.7 Did Spice Island Mariners Follow Another Major Current
from the West Pacific Warm Pool into the Indian Ocean?
We have argued that spice trading was fundamental rather than incidental to the maritime development of the Spice Island ancestors of the Polynesian peoples, that it
was probably a driving factor in their evolution not only from local to regional trading but also to international maritime trading. Spice trading seems almost certainly
to have been the motivation for Spice Islanders developing the sailing and exploration strategy of following at least two of the four major warm currents flowing
out of the WPWP. The first current flowed through the volcanically heated WPWP
to Japan where, we conjecture, Spice Islanders established an early trading colony.
(Evidence for this is discussed in the next chapter.) The second made possible the
establishment of the Cinnamon Route which conveyed spices to Africa from where
they could be transshipped to the Middle East and Europe. Another major current
flowed from the WPWP into the Indian Ocean.
The West Australian Current, as its name suggests, flowed south along the coast
of Western Australia. Our paradigm predicts that Spice Island explorers would also
have followed this current. Exploration and trading often go hand in hand, though
the discovery of new territories does not always result in the opening up of new trading possibilities. For Spice Islanders, a second motivation for exploration seems to
have been the quest for new territories to colonize as safe refuges against the possibility of invasion and tribal defeat. With continual destabilizations in the spice trade,
possibly from 1500 BC, and later local and foreign attempts to wrest spice-growing