The Ocean-Going Vessels of Ancient Pacific People

Aug 17, 2011
Brian Cross

Polynesian Voyaging Canoe Replica - Image by Stan Shebs

While European and Asian sailors were safely staying close to land, the people of the Pacific voyaged far and wide in their great migratory canoes.

Five thousand years ago the islands of the Pacific Ocean knew no human footsteps. The people whose descendants crossed Asia from the west had reached the limits of overland migration. Now vast tracks of ocean stood before them as they were, for whatever reason, compelled to look ever-eastwards in search of new places to live. As the technologies of travel developed, the world’s first blue water nautical ventures took place. Travellers began to settle the Pacific islands, initially in the regions now known as Melanesia and Micronesia, and finally throughout Polynesia.

Migration Eastwards and Settlement of Polynesia

After two thousand years of ocean-going migration, societies had established in Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and other places in the central Pacific. Just what were the technologies these adventurers had employed to get there? What were the vessels in which large groups of people navigated the earth’s greatest expanse of ocean, until a mere eight centuries ago all its habitable lands were finally populated?

Our knowledge of Polynesia’s ancient sailing vessels is scant. Compared to the Egyptian, Greek and Chinese civilisations of their day, the people of the Pacific had no written language, nor did they build great cities for later study. But traditions were handed down, oral histories told and unique cultures passed on. In time archaeology was conducted, research done and craft reconstructed from what was learned. These small ships sailed the ancient routes and gathered the evidence to prove how Pacific settlement had been achieved.

Now there is a general understanding of the ocean-going craft that those seafarers used to cross the Pacific. Considerably more understanding in fact than what existed in the days of early European contact. Educated opinion then was that Polynesian people could not possibly build substantial ocean-going craft, let alone purposefully find their way to the scattered islands of the Pacific.

From Outrigger Canoe to Ocean-Going Vessel

The Pacific proa, the traditional and recognisable outrigger canoe, developed as the optimum design for localised use throughout the Pacific. The larger of them may have been used for scouting trips of discovery, and indeed it is suggested that that parts of western Micronesia may have been first settled using such rudimentary craft. But as distances increased the further east the voyagers went, only those aboard larger vessels would succeed. Settlement of the central Pacific and further afield came with the advent of double canoe designs. These true multi-hulled vessels had the stability and size to offer the space and seaworthiness needed to transport family or community groups to new places of settlement.

The earliest of these ocean-going double canoes were probably built for ceremonial purposes and prestige rather than for exploration. Longer length and more beam meant better support for taller masts, more sail area and greater speed, with a bigger crew to control it all. An example was the Fijian drua, some of which may have been up to 36 metres long. The Samoan alia and Tongan kalia were of similar design and capacity.

Appreciating the Achievements of the Pacific's Early Sailors

Today the only remaining ocean-going Polynesian double canoes of the past are in museums, and they are small ones at that. And while there are still large gaps in the history of ancient shipbuilding practices, the feats of those seafarers have become better appreciated in these more enlightened and informed times. Practical as well as academic interest in those traditional designs has been rekindled as a result. Modern reconstructions have been built in various parts of the Pacific, and new ocean voyages undertaken across old routes. Methods of navigation and ship design once dismissed as myth have been scientifically verified, and those epic voyages of the ancients reaffirmed as fact, not fiction.

The navigational skills of the island people and the capabilities of the vessels that conveyed them are evident in the mere fact of pre-European settlement of the Pacific. A few short decades ago there still remained considerably debate around the subject of Pacific migration – how those people could possibly navigate over such long distances and how their ships and passengers could survive the rigours of the journey.

Today that debate has largely subsided, due recognition for their achievements generally now afforded those people of long ago who sailed the vast ocean to settle its tiny, far-flung lands.