Massive 
                Double Hulled Voyaging Canoes
                
               
                The 
                  great Pacific Ocean had been mastered by the ancestors of the 
                  Polynesians well before 2,500 BC. The canoes were constructed 
                  as a community project led by master craftsmen, and guided to 
                  their destinations by an elite fraternity of navigators, taught 
                  from childhood to read nautical information in a host of natural 
                  phenomena. They knew the year round positions of more than 150 
                  strars and had a vast knowledge of ocean currents, prevailing 
                  winds and the habits of migratory birds. 
                   
                From The Pacific Navigators Time Life Books 
              
              
                
              
              
              
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