h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Polynesians were busy colonising the largest body of water on the planet (the Pacific) long before Westerners thought it was worth sailing to anywhere. By 1,000 BC Polynesia spread from Asia to Easter Island (East-West) and from Hawa'ii to Vanuatu (North-South).

The last Pacific Island colonised was New Zealand in the 9th Century, at the same time the Vikings had only started to build up their empire and had yet to colonise Iceland.

Hi,

don't know how I missed this posting when it first appeared, but thanks anyway.

I omitted the polynesian navigators because a) I didn't consider their canoes to be ships, and b) I don't know enough about the people or their achievements. This despite spending time in NZ and seeing some pretty impressive 'waka'.

The ability to find your way across oceans is just as important as the ability to keep floating that long so the polynesians really do deserve a mention. Take a scan through the 'new' article, and if you can see a way to insert a para on the polynesians then I'll be more than happy to include it. A whole entry as part of the uni project would really help, if you're feeling creative.

(I wrote a guide entry some time later speculating that Hawai-iki, the lost homeland of the Maori, may in fact be Ireland. No one seemed to take it seriously and I eventually deleted it.)

all the best

SB

Quick question - when was the Euterpe built?

She was launched on 14 November 1863.

Why do you ask?

You described her as: "The Euterpe was one of the first iron ships built".
Is this really true, considering iron barges had been used in Britain during the 18th century, the iron paddle-steamer Aaron Manby had been built in 1821, in 1843 Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the Great Britain, the first large iron ship to cross the Atlantic?
The first armed iron ship was the Nemesis, a paddle-gunboat owned by the Honourable East India Company, built in 1839 and used in the Opium War of 1841. The Royal Navy also, between 1843 and 1846, built six frigates out of iron, such as HMS Terrible. In 1838, using the iron steamer Rainbow for his experiments, Professor Sir George Airy learnt how to countermand the effect iron ships had on the compass. The world's first iron-hulled warship, HMS Warrior, was launched in 1860.

So I'd be a bit restrained about describing a ship launched in 1863 as one of the first built...

Other than that - great entry!
(Sorry - I'm too used to Peer Review)

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B****r!

I'm never going to get finished at this rate.

Thanks anyway tho'.

Columbus sailed the ocean blue
in fourteen hundred and ninety two

The First Armada (the famous one) was 1588.
If you take a look at the pictures which still exist of the British vessels which took part, you can see the transition from the "high-charged" ships, like the Mary Rose in appearance, to the low, race-built galleons like the Revenge. (It just so happens that the Spanish were amongst the last to switch to the galleon type, pace Sir Henry Newbolt)

Actually, single masted square riggers can sail against the wind - I'm sure that there was a series on historic preserved sail which showed the Tyne keel Comrade doing just that - the Norsemen could and did do it in their drakkars, and the Romans used a sail set above the bowsprit (artimon?) to do the same.

Gilgamesh, why don't you help me finish this project?

How are you getting on with it?

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