G'Day, Recently came across a number of old techniques for 'navigating'. Apparently African Americans during the Civil War designed escape routes into patchwork quilts and Afghans in ancient times recorded the location of battles onto maps woven into their carpets (war carpets). A method that particularly appeals was described by Brian Wilson in 'Dances With Waves' where Irish fisherman memorised a sequence of bearings in songs that were handed down through the ages, very similar to the Australian aboriginal groups who had 'songlines' for many purposes one of which was navigation. Wondered what other methods people might have heard of. (Suspect the quilt story is well known in the US but I'ld not heard it before). How did the Icelandic people navigate? All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
I had an interesting book a few years back (which I gave away as a gift so can't reference it) that was an interesting look at navigation by various Pacific Islanders. As I recall, they used birds and flight patterns quite a bit. I checked and it looks like the book is: "We, the Navigators : The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific" by David Lewis, Derek, Sir Oulton (Editor) -Patrick At Wednesday, 27 February 2002, "PeterO" <rebyl_kayak_at_iprimus.com. au> wrote: >G'Day, > >Recently came across a number of old techniques for 'navigating'.[SNIP] *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
Regarding the book described by Patrick: Any sea kayaker interested in navigation with charts and compass should read this book. It is terrific! They would watch the flight of certain species of birds at dusk because they knew the birds returned to land for the night. They recognized reflected wave patterns that were generated by islands far over the horizon. They noted changes in currents in the Pacific by observing changes in the way waves lay down or rose up as they crossed in and out of currents. These navigators knew the prevailing wave patterns so that day or night under overcast, they could still maintain correct bearings to islands hundreds of miles apart. They knew the zenith stars that were over the latitude of the islands they were trying to reach. Most importantly, before Europeans had compasses, these traditional mariners used the "sideral" compass- orientation of the stars at night. They knew the bearings of successive stars rising and setting to set their courses to islands scattered all over the Pacific. These people knew how to navigate in this manner for a couple thousand years- but they were considered primitives by europeans right up to the early 20th century. This book is still in print; it costs about $25., and is worth every penny of it. I have read it several times, and wrote a book review on a few years ago. Chuck Sutherland Subject: Re: [Paddlewise] Routes: quilts, carpets and songs Reply-to: patrick_at_patrickmaun.com Cc: "'Paddlewise'" <Paddlewise_at_paddlewise.net> Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 10:21:28 +0100 I had an interesting book a few years back (which I gave away as a gift so can't reference it) that was an interesting look at navigation by various Pacific Islanders. As I recall, they used birds and flight patterns quite a bit. I checked and it looks like the book is: "We, the Navigators : The Ancient Art of Landfinding in the Pacific" by David Lewis, Derek, Sir Oulton (Editor) -Patrick *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Thu Aug 21 2025 - 16:33:28 PDT