64
3 The Oceanographic Context
(iii) transoceanic trading to Africa and America, crossing the full width of the
Indian and northern Pacific Oceans by following two of the four major currents
flowing out of the WPWP to their continental limits, with early colonization of
New Zealand achieved by following a third major ocean current flowing out of
the WPWP into the southern Pacific Ocean.
We have only considered the earliest two stages of Spice Island maritime history
in this chapter. We have suggested that archaeological evidence for early maritime
trading in the Spice Island region, though scant, provides a context in which the
early maritime history of the Spice Islands can be sensibly conjectured. And we
have sketched the oceanographic and maritime background to the Spice Islanders’
development of skills and technologies that, we argue, enabled them eventually to
become international spice traders, voyaging, we have suggested, perhaps as early
as 5,700 years ago to Japan in the north.
In the next three chapters our focus moves to the last and most remarkable stage
of Spice Island maritime history. All three stages depend on and reflect changes in
oceanographic conditions in the WPWP and the three stages we have defined form
a logical progression. At every stage oceanographic conditions within the WPWP
determined the maritime possibilities open to Spice Island mariners. And at every
stage it was the Spice Islanders’ innovative response to these conditions, given
the persistent impetus and economic motivation of spice trading, that determined
maritime and trading outcomes.
For perhaps 2,000 years within the WPWP long-distance voyaging nursery, in
what we envisage as the second stage in their maritime history, Spice Islanders
perfected the skills and technologies they had developed in response to the strong
currents and to the exceptionally high SSTs that appeared in the WPWP after the
last Ice Age flood. Their innovative adoption of a sailing strategy of following
fast currents over long distances and their development of the double-outrigger
able to exploit fast currents safely led them eventually to expand their mastery of
transoceanic (as opposed to coastal) voyaging into colder ocean waters outside the
WPWP. This expansion marked their moving to what we describe as the third stage
of their maritime history.
The third stage of Spice Island maritime history, we suggest, was made possible
by mariners, during global warm periods, following at least three of the four major
fast warm currents flowing out of the WPWP, exploiting the power and warmth of
these currents to provide some protection against hypothermia. We shall show how,
using their awareness of the predictable behaviour of ocean currents in response
to nearby landmasses (due to the Coriolis effect), Spice Island explorers were able
to rapidly discover and settle the largest uninhabited islands in two oceans. In this
third stage, Spice Island mariners, over time and in a logical sequence, during global
warm periods, effected remarkable maritime, trading and demographic expansions in two oceans. Documenting these expansions is our focus in the next three
chapters.
3 The Oceanographic Context
(iii) transoceanic trading to Africa and America, crossing the full width of the
Indian and northern Pacific Oceans by following two of the four major currents
flowing out of the WPWP to their continental limits, with early colonization of
New Zealand achieved by following a third major ocean current flowing out of
the WPWP into the southern Pacific Ocean.
We have only considered the earliest two stages of Spice Island maritime history
in this chapter. We have suggested that archaeological evidence for early maritime
trading in the Spice Island region, though scant, provides a context in which the
early maritime history of the Spice Islands can be sensibly conjectured. And we
have sketched the oceanographic and maritime background to the Spice Islanders’
development of skills and technologies that, we argue, enabled them eventually to
become international spice traders, voyaging, we have suggested, perhaps as early
as 5,700 years ago to Japan in the north.
In the next three chapters our focus moves to the last and most remarkable stage
of Spice Island maritime history. All three stages depend on and reflect changes in
oceanographic conditions in the WPWP and the three stages we have defined form
a logical progression. At every stage oceanographic conditions within the WPWP
determined the maritime possibilities open to Spice Island mariners. And at every
stage it was the Spice Islanders’ innovative response to these conditions, given
the persistent impetus and economic motivation of spice trading, that determined
maritime and trading outcomes.
For perhaps 2,000 years within the WPWP long-distance voyaging nursery, in
what we envisage as the second stage in their maritime history, Spice Islanders
perfected the skills and technologies they had developed in response to the strong
currents and to the exceptionally high SSTs that appeared in the WPWP after the
last Ice Age flood. Their innovative adoption of a sailing strategy of following
fast currents over long distances and their development of the double-outrigger
able to exploit fast currents safely led them eventually to expand their mastery of
transoceanic (as opposed to coastal) voyaging into colder ocean waters outside the
WPWP. This expansion marked their moving to what we describe as the third stage
of their maritime history.
The third stage of Spice Island maritime history, we suggest, was made possible
by mariners, during global warm periods, following at least three of the four major
fast warm currents flowing out of the WPWP, exploiting the power and warmth of
these currents to provide some protection against hypothermia. We shall show how,
using their awareness of the predictable behaviour of ocean currents in response
to nearby landmasses (due to the Coriolis effect), Spice Island explorers were able
to rapidly discover and settle the largest uninhabited islands in two oceans. In this
third stage, Spice Island mariners, over time and in a logical sequence, during global
warm periods, effected remarkable maritime, trading and demographic expansions in two oceans. Documenting these expansions is our focus in the next three
chapters.