158
9 Exploration Strategies, Settlement Sequence and the Evolution of Canoe Design
variable winds and paddle through the Doldrums at need. These canoes served
specialized sailing needs within tropical Polynesia, both for voyaging within
archipelagoes and in inter-archipelago voyaging, carrying larger numbers of people
and heavier cargoes.
The kinds of specializations in canoe design seen in Eastern Polynesia underline major differences between the sailing strategies adopted in Eastern Polynesia
and the sailing strategies that for millennia made possible the extensive exploration,
trading and migration of Spice Islanders. Sail design, for example, reflects changes
in sailing strategies. As Anderson notes, the development of the Oceanic lateen sail
which, typically, has a yard with no boom. . .enabled going about by shunting rather than
tacking. . .Shunting was a manoeuvre which kept the same side of the boat to the wind,
important for outriggers especially, and it involved switching the bow and stern by taking
the heel or tack of the sail from one end of the hull to the other, the mast swivelling over to
suit (p. 27).
Tacking, by contrast, involves “turning the bow through the direction of the
wind”. Eastern Polynesian variations in canoe design supplied greater manoeuvrability and more ability to handle light and changeable winds while maintaining
maximum opportunity for paddling. Anderson, after Finney [4], argues that
East Polynesian double canoes were built traditionally with open hulls, low freeboard (about
60 cm.), and access along the inside of the hulls, as well as the outside, deliberately to suit
paddling as occasion demanded – they were, in fact, combination sailing and paddling craft,
quite unlike the historical sailing vessels of West Polynesia with their covered hulls, high
sides and full platforms. Using a reconstructed Hawaiian double canoe in ocean-paddling
experiments, Horvath and Finney (1976) showed that a pace of slightly more than 3 knots
could be sustained comfortably for 8-hour stints over several days, enabling progress of
about 50 km. per day, and more if there were several shifts of paddlers available. Such a
facility provided the means to cross the Doldrums quite easily and to maintain progress
through other calms and light airs.
Outriggers, as Anderson notes (p. 39), are usually faster than double canoes. They
are both lighter and more seaworthy. Primitive oceanic spritsails enabled them to
gain some speed from following winds. They were designed to sail with maximum
stability when exploiting fast warm currents. They accommodated the different sailing strategies chosen when the largest and best resourced uninhabited islands, which
could be reached by fast warm currents, were targets for settlement.
In Eastern Polynesia the capacity of the early double-outriggers with an oceanic
spritsail to sail before a following wind was sacrificed to gain a better capacity for
coping with light variable winds. The greater stability and seaworthiness of the early
double-outriggers was sacrificed to gain more manoeuvrability and some ability to
sail to windward. The lighter design of the early outriggers gave way to the increased
size and greater carrying capacity of the double-hulled canoe – able to carry heavy
cargoes and to carry up to 200 people in a migration. Our discussion of the migrations led by Kahukura within the Pacific in Chapter 18 documents the advantage of
such a carrying capacity.
In place of the fast long-distance current-based voyaging of first- and secondwave explorers and migrants, the settlement of Eastern Polynesia probably involved
9 Exploration Strategies, Settlement Sequence and the Evolution of Canoe Design
variable winds and paddle through the Doldrums at need. These canoes served
specialized sailing needs within tropical Polynesia, both for voyaging within
archipelagoes and in inter-archipelago voyaging, carrying larger numbers of people
and heavier cargoes.
The kinds of specializations in canoe design seen in Eastern Polynesia underline major differences between the sailing strategies adopted in Eastern Polynesia
and the sailing strategies that for millennia made possible the extensive exploration,
trading and migration of Spice Islanders. Sail design, for example, reflects changes
in sailing strategies. As Anderson notes, the development of the Oceanic lateen sail
which, typically, has a yard with no boom. . .enabled going about by shunting rather than
tacking. . .Shunting was a manoeuvre which kept the same side of the boat to the wind,
important for outriggers especially, and it involved switching the bow and stern by taking
the heel or tack of the sail from one end of the hull to the other, the mast swivelling over to
suit (p. 27).
Tacking, by contrast, involves “turning the bow through the direction of the
wind”. Eastern Polynesian variations in canoe design supplied greater manoeuvrability and more ability to handle light and changeable winds while maintaining
maximum opportunity for paddling. Anderson, after Finney [4], argues that
East Polynesian double canoes were built traditionally with open hulls, low freeboard (about
60 cm.), and access along the inside of the hulls, as well as the outside, deliberately to suit
paddling as occasion demanded – they were, in fact, combination sailing and paddling craft,
quite unlike the historical sailing vessels of West Polynesia with their covered hulls, high
sides and full platforms. Using a reconstructed Hawaiian double canoe in ocean-paddling
experiments, Horvath and Finney (1976) showed that a pace of slightly more than 3 knots
could be sustained comfortably for 8-hour stints over several days, enabling progress of
about 50 km. per day, and more if there were several shifts of paddlers available. Such a
facility provided the means to cross the Doldrums quite easily and to maintain progress
through other calms and light airs.
Outriggers, as Anderson notes (p. 39), are usually faster than double canoes. They
are both lighter and more seaworthy. Primitive oceanic spritsails enabled them to
gain some speed from following winds. They were designed to sail with maximum
stability when exploiting fast warm currents. They accommodated the different sailing strategies chosen when the largest and best resourced uninhabited islands, which
could be reached by fast warm currents, were targets for settlement.
In Eastern Polynesia the capacity of the early double-outriggers with an oceanic
spritsail to sail before a following wind was sacrificed to gain a better capacity for
coping with light variable winds. The greater stability and seaworthiness of the early
double-outriggers was sacrificed to gain more manoeuvrability and some ability to
sail to windward. The lighter design of the early outriggers gave way to the increased
size and greater carrying capacity of the double-hulled canoe – able to carry heavy
cargoes and to carry up to 200 people in a migration. Our discussion of the migrations led by Kahukura within the Pacific in Chapter 18 documents the advantage of
such a carrying capacity.
In place of the fast long-distance current-based voyaging of first- and secondwave explorers and migrants, the settlement of Eastern Polynesia probably involved