From Ships to Stars and Back again

On July 20, 1969, thousands of people throughout the world stopped everything to watch something on TV. During my lifetime, the things that I remember stopping everything to watch on TV have been tragedies; putting down my algebra book for the verdict of the OJ Simpson Trial, watching Columbine coverage after a ski race, Organic Chemistry class cancelled for a week in college while twin towers burn. But in 1969, it wasn't something horrible on TV. On July 20, the world dropped everything to watch something magical - human-kind walking on the moon. Humankind had done something absolutely amazing, and the world paused for a second to take it in.


Since the 1960s and 1970s, some people's perception of space travel has changed from an inspiration to what some consider a waste of money (Note: this is not my opinion, but I don't write NASA's budget). The last flight of the space shuttle program was July 8, 2011. I was in Washington DC on April 17, 2012 when the Space Shuttle Discovery made its last flight over the Washington Mall, on its way to the Smithsonian Air & Space Museum. As far as we know, US space shuttles (and men on the moon) are now a thing of the past. Does that mean an end to the legacy of discovery?


This legacy actually goes much further back than missions to space. The Space Shuttle Discovery was named after four scientific sailing ships from the days of British exploration:

• HMS Discovery - Sailed by Captain James Cook during his Voyages from 1776 to 1779.
• Discovery -sailed by Henry Hudson in 1610-1611 to search for the Northwest Passage.
• HMSDiscovery - took Captain George Nares to the North Pole in 1875-1876
• RRSDiscovery -under the command of Captain Scott and Ernest Shackleton sailed to Antarctica in 1901-1904.

Of these, Captain Cook's voyages were the most far reaching - he circumnavigated the globe, multiple times. His last voyage, which happened to be on the HMS Discovery, ended in Hawaii when he was struck on the head while trying to kidnap King Kalaniʻōpuʻu of Hawaii (a not entirely unjustified reaction by the Hawaiians, in my opinion).

Many other space shuttles have been named after scientific vessels. The Endeavor was named after Cook's first ship (shown in green, above). The Challenger Shuttle was named after yet another scientific research vessel, as was the Atlantis (named after Wood's Hole's first scientific research vessel). When humankind looked to a new frontier, we remembered the sea. And we named our "ships" accordingly.

Cook wasn't the first ocean voyager to reach Hawaii, though. Not by a long shot. Here, he met a truly seafaring people who had been traveling across the great Pacific from Polynesia, using the stars for navigation. Without instruments, they traveled across the ocean across ocean at distances of at least 2500 miles. With them they brought their families, livestock, and crops to make a home on new lands.

By the 20th century, however, few records remained of the Hawaiian voyaging canoes except for old drawings, such as Hodges' of double-hulled canoes from the 1773 Cook expedition. This went along with a general loss of Hawaiian culture, from language repression* to the loss of their monarch and kingdom. Many people didn't believe that the Hawaiians could have gotten to the islands purposefully. One theory was that storm-driven ships had gotten lost and accidentally landed on the islands, stranding their passengers. In the 1950s and 60s, the debate between the those advocating accidental drift, and those advocating purposeful navigation became heated, and a society was formed to build a replica polynesian voyaging canoe. Herb Kane of the Polynesian Voyaging Society designed the canoe, which was launched in 1975. The canoe was named the Hōkūle‘a, the "star of gladness" the Hawaiian name for Arcturus (for pronunciation of Hōkūle‘a click here). This star passes directly over Hawaii.

In 1976, the Hōkūle‘a sailed to Tahiti with under the navigation of Pius Mau Piailug, one of the last Polynesian Navigators on earth. Only four years later, Ninoa Thompson was the first native Hawaiian to navigate a canoe to Tahiti without instruments. It is beyond me to describe the experience of building, launching and sailing this first voyaging canoe. My heritage is one of forgetfulness and wandering. My family is not tied to the land of our ancestors in any meaningful way - instead it is a mishmash of fair-skinned people from who-knows where that seem to have never stayed in one place for more than one generation. I can not hope to imagine or understand the joy that came after the hard work of building this canoe, and learning to direct her using the traditions of your ancestors.

Since 1976, the Hōkūle‘a has sailed on over 10 voyages, from Hawaii to Tahiti, Japan, Pago Pago, and Australia (to list only a few). Her next trip will be a worldwide voyage, starting with a sail to Tahiti, and passing by New Zealand, the Indian Ocean, Africa, North and South America, and the Galapagos (again, only listing a few).

The mission of this voyage is "to navigate toward a healthy and sustainable future for ourselves, our home - the Hawaiian Islands - and our Island Earth through voyaging and new ways of learning. Our core message is to mālama (care for) Island Earth - our natural environment, children and all humankind." As part of the mission, the Hōkūle‘a has looked for proposals for science that can be done for knowledge and outreach. At the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology**, we were privileged enough to hear Ninoa Thompson speak about the history of the Hōkūle‘a and their mission ahead. In regards to the purpose of the voyage, the Polynesian Voyaging Society's website states, "If we view our Earth as an island, our only voyaging canoe in the sea of space, it becomes apparent that we must change course to ensure a healthy, sustainable world."


The inspiration for the worldwide voyage came during a conversation between Pinky Thompson, and Lacy Veach, an astronaut who flew on both the Discovery and the Colombia. As Lacy looked out the shuttle window at the islands of Hawaii far below, he "saw the islands and the planet in one vision - that planet earth was just an island like Hawai‘i, in an ocean of space, and that we needed to take care of them both if the planet was to remain a life-giving home for humanity."

This seems especially poetic to me. The inspiration for this worldwide voyage literally originated in space, which will provide the navigation. With the retirement of the Space Shuttle Discovery, the US has ended (or perhaps paused) one legacy of scientific exploration. But the Hōkūle‘a, which is named for a star, is part of another, older, legacy. Dreamed up among, named for, and navigated by the stars, her goal on this voyage is to link the ocean peoples on earth, making new discoveries and teaching how to protect our common home.

"Man's perpetual curiosity regarding the unknown has opened many frontiers. Among the last to yield to the advance of scientific exploration has been the ocean. Until recent years much more was known about the surface of the moon than about the vast areas that lie beneath three-fourths of the surface of our own planet."

F.P Shepard, 1948***

If you want more information about Polynesian Voyaging, please check out the PVS webpage, and NASA is a good resource to learn about Space Travel.

** In yet another coincidence, the emblem for the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) is derived from an illustration from the logbooks of the HMS Challenger, yet another research vessel with a space shuttle named after her.


*** These lines are often quoted, and have been an inspiration (through David Attenborough's reference to them in Blue Planet) to thousands of nascent marine biologists (including myself).

This post was first published on my personal blog on January 24, 2013, but I wanted to repost it for two reasons. First, yesterday i was lucky enough to hear US Senator Bill Nelson talk about his experience as an astronaut looking down at Florida from space. One of the things that stuck me was his decription of how "you can clearly see the outlines of florida from Outer Space, because most of the population is along the coasts." The second reason is that the Hokulea begins her voyage in just a few short months, with some of my acoustic equipment onboard listening for dolphins.