Hokulea
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Hōkūleʻa is a performance-accurate full-scale replica of a wooden sailing vessel (Polynesian voyaging canoe) used in ancient Hawaiʻi. Its name means "star of gladness" in Hawaiian, and the name refers to the star Arcturus, a guiding zenith star for Hawaiian navigators, which falls directly overhead at Hawaiʻi's latitude.
It was built in 1975 by the Polynesian Voyaging Society, and is best known for its 1976 voyage from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti, performed without modern navigational instruments. The primary goal of the voyage was to further support the theory of the origins of native Oceanic people (particularly Polynesians and Hawaiians) being traced west to Asia as a purposeful trip through the Pacific and not simply drifting on currents from the Americas.
Since then Hōkūleʻa has completed seven voyages to various destinations in Polynesia and the United States, all using ancient wayfinding techniques of celestial navigation.
On January 19, 2007, Hokule'a left Hawaii with the voyaging canoe Alingano Maisu on a voyage to Micronesia and Japan.[a] The voyage was expected to take five months. On June 9, 2007 Hokule'a arrived in Japan.
When it is not on a voyage, Hōkūleʻa is moored at the Hawaiʻi Maritime Center in Honolulu Harbor.
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[edit] List of voyages
- 1976: Hōkūleʻa, led by captain Kawika Kapahulehua and Satawalese navigator Mau Piailug, traveled from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti and back.
- 1977:Kealaikahiki Project
- 1978: A second attempted voyage to Tahiti was aborted when the canoe swamped south of the island of Molokaʻi. Eddie Aikau is lost at sea on this voyage.
- 1980: Native Hawaiian Navigator Nainoa Thompson recreated the 1976 voyage, becoming the first Native Hawaiian in modern times to guide a canoe without instruments[1].
- 1985: Known as the Voyage of Rediscovery, Hōkūleʻa traveled a total distance of 16,000 miles to various destinations in Polynesia[2].
- 1992: Hōkūleʻa sailed to Rarotonga and back via Tahiti. The voyage included an educational component where Hawaii students could track the progress of the canoe through daily radio reports.
- 1995 spring: Hōkūleʻa, along with sister ships Hawaiʻiloa and Makaliʻi, sailed from Hawaiʻi to the Marquesas Islands and back via Tahiti[3].
- 1995 summer: Hōkūleʻa and Hawaiʻiloa sailed the West Coast of the United States from Seattle to San Diego.
- 1999: Hōkūleʻa sailed from Hawaiʻi to Rapa Nui and back.Known as "Closing the Triangle" voyage.
- 2004: Hōkūleʻa's most recent voyage took place in June 2004, when navigator Thompson led a training voyage through the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands.Known as "Navigating Change" voyage.
- 2007: Accompanied by the canoe Alingano Maisu and specialized escoat boat Kama Hele[4], Hokule'a sailed from Hawaii to the Federated States of Micronesia. Known as "Ku Holo Mau" voyage. While on the island of Satawal, the crew of the Hokule'a presented the Alingano Maisu to Mau Piailug as a gift for his role in helping to revive traditional wayfinding navigation in Hawaii. From there, the Hokule'a sailed to various ports (Itoman, Amami-Oshima, Uto, Nomozaki, Nagasaki, Fukuoka, Shin-Moji, Iwaishima, Suo-Oshima, Miyajima, Hiroshima, Uwajima, Muroto, Miura, Kamakura and Yokohama) in Japan. Known as "Ku Holo La Komohana" voyage. Kama Hele had sailed back to Oahu by German Captain and six Japanese crewmembers[5].
[edit] Images
 Galley and Diamond Bakery's cookie bucket.[6] |
 Motto[7] on a crossbeam |
 Steering sweep grip of portside |
 Inside a compartment |
 Radio system |
 Hokule'a arrives in Yokohama Bay, 2007 |
 Kama Hele at Yokohama port, on the day Hokule'a finished the 2007 Micronesia-Japan voyage |
[edit] Notes and references
[edit] Notes
a. ^ Derek Farrar (October/November 2007). In the Land of the Western Sun. Hana Hou! Vol. 10 No. 5 (Article includes a travel diary from May 14 in Fukuoka through May 25 in Hiroshima). “After the new canoe was presented to Mau in March, Hokule‘a continued on a second mission, dubbed Ku Holo La Komohana (Sail on to the Western Sun), crossing 1,200 miles from the Micronesian island of Yap to Okinawa and then hopscotching through the islands of southern Japan to Yokohama. The journey was conceived to honor the cultural ties between Japan and Hawai‘i, which began with the visit of King Kalakaua to the Emperor Meiji in 1881 and were strengthened by the subsequent emigration of thousands of Japanese contract laborers to the Islands’ sugar plantations, many of whom remained in Hawai‘i, forever weaving their heritage into the fabric of Island life.”
[edit] References
- ^ Will Kyselka, An Ocean in Mind, University of hawaii Press, 1986
- ^ Ben Finney et al., "The Voyage of Rediscovery", University of California Press, 1994
- ^ Ben Finney, "Sailing in the Wake of Ancestors", University of hawaii Press
- ^ Kama Hele - The Ultimate Escort Vessel
- ^ 2007 Voyage Weblog > July 17, 2007: Kama Hele arrives home
- ^ The Voyage to Rapa Nui / 1999-2000
- ^ Kapu Na Keiki
[edit] See also
- Hawaiʻiloa
- Makaliʻi
- Waka Hourua
- Polynesian navigation
[edit] External links
- Polynesian Voyaging Society website
- PVS website on the building of Hōkūleʻa
- Uncle Charlie's personal website on Hōkūleʻa, by Charles Kauluwehi Maxwell Sr.
- Honolulu Advertiser Hōkūleʻa Voyage Special
