Seafaring: what a cool word! Sea comes from proto-Germanic saiwaz. Its origins before that are mysterious and ancient, but it’s probably a Proto-Indo European (PIE) word. We use it fairly commonly in English today. Faring, on the other hand, comes from the Old English word
Has anyone ever attempted to use some sort of crude raft to sail to Australia from a point where there would have been islands back then? I hear people speculate that those “first mariners” might have just gotten lucky and been blown over to Australia in a storm but I don’t think that’s how it happened. And before modern Polynesian sailers recreated the techniques and vessels of their ancestors a lot of snobby Europeans doubted they had the skills to navigate the wide Pacific and said they were probably just lucky, but that was proven wrong.
Great question, James! I think the most famous of these sorts of experiments has been Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki Expedition, which showed that you could build seacraft with existing technology that could indeed get across wide swathes of water. I'm not aware of the specific journey from islands to Australia, but I would not be surprised to learn that someone had done this. And, I agree: these ancestors of ours were very, very smart.
There's a great documentary called "Moana" about these early seafarers. I highly recommend it, even if it's just for the authentic recreation of a giant singing crab. Shiny!
Has anyone ever attempted to use some sort of crude raft to sail to Australia from a point where there would have been islands back then? I hear people speculate that those “first mariners” might have just gotten lucky and been blown over to Australia in a storm but I don’t think that’s how it happened. And before modern Polynesian sailers recreated the techniques and vessels of their ancestors a lot of snobby Europeans doubted they had the skills to navigate the wide Pacific and said they were probably just lucky, but that was proven wrong.
Great question, James! I think the most famous of these sorts of experiments has been Thor Heyerdahl's Kon-Tiki Expedition, which showed that you could build seacraft with existing technology that could indeed get across wide swathes of water. I'm not aware of the specific journey from islands to Australia, but I would not be surprised to learn that someone had done this. And, I agree: these ancestors of ours were very, very smart.
Yeah, I read a book called “Sea People” a while ago that had a lot of great info about those Polynesian voyages, highly recommended
This one?
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/40536236
Yes
There's a great documentary called "Moana" about these early seafarers. I highly recommend it, even if it's just for the authentic recreation of a giant singing crab. Shiny!
I love when parents make these knowing jokes.