Hawaiian Navigation

 In 1778 Native Hawaiians were sailing to the islands that was long before Europeans came to the islands. The native Hawaiians had the knowledge of sailing and navigation they could even sail between other islands as far as New Zealand in the Pacific Ocean. They didn’t have to use modern technology to navigate or sail. They knew the different stars and Ocean currents to get them through the voyage. The Hawaiian islanders were From 3000 B.C. until the coming of the European explorers and missionaries in the 16th century, Hawaiians were part of a huge sailing culture, they would sail on large doubled hulled canoes that could travel 1000 miles. The canoes were built with the technology of the stone ages and the islanders would sail to trade goods and ideas. Since the sailors had no modern technology for instance a compass or map they would use the stars to help them navigate.

Polaris the North Star is one of the most useful stars to the Hawaiian navigation. At night the stars move around they do not stay at the same place because the earth spins so you can see different sections of the sky, but Polaris the north star is always at the same place because the pole rotates with the earth. Polaris is always north of the constellations, the little bear. The easiest way to find Polaris is by locating the big differ than follow the line of the right edge of the cup up and from wherever you are Polaris is directly north.