Dirk H.R. Spennemann, Essays on the Marshallese Past

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2024-05-08 02:30:06

Marshallese have always been noted for their navigational skill and in the past only a certain few people, either men or women, were taught the secrets of sailing and navigation. The stick charts were constructed as instructional aids for teaching to preserve knowledge. They were not taken on voyages, for all knowledge was memorised. The charts depict natural phenomena and interpret the wave and current patterns that strike the islands. Long before modern day navigational instruments were brought to the Marshallese, they travelled the ocean, maintained courses and determined positions of islands by the use of wave patterns that are depicted in the stick charts.

Very few people today understand these charts, although many people know how to make them. In fact some types of stick charts of today, particularly the two common types of the rebbelip charts, are believed by some old men to be recent introductions that were influenced by modern methods of mapping and plotting positions. The only type that was verified by several old men to be authentic was the wappepe type. There are generally three types seen today; two types of the rebbelip, and the wappepe. Wave Navigation

In the Pacific, navigation was mainly by the position of the stars and the sun and moon (celestial navigation), and secondly by waves. The Marshall Islands stretching NNW to SSE are set at right angles to the ocean swell built up by the predominant trade winds. This orientation of the islands lends itself to navigation based on wave patterns. Wave pattern navigation can only be efficiently entertained where there is a sufficient number of islands or atolls set close enough to each other at an angle which runs predominantly perpendicular to the swell. In the Pacific Ocean there are only a few islands groups that meet these requirements, the Marshall Islands chiefly among them. Only in the Marshall Islands, however, were the stick charts developed, special implements to ensure the transmission of vital information and knowledge provided by the waves.