THE FIRST SAILOR

“Land was created to provide a place for boats to visit.”
― Brooks Atkinson

 Apparently, our species were not the inventors of boats. Homo Erectus remains have been found on Indonesian islands that were surrounded by water when these distant ancestors existed. Sea levels were lower then, which reduced the distances, but not so low as to eliminate the barrier of water. Using the crude stone technology of the time, anthropologists constructed rafts out of bamboo stalks lashed together with vegetable fiber. How were the boats propelled and steered? Likely oars, however, junks use bamboo sails, and the Kon Tiki used sails of bamboo stems, so wind power is not impossible. Perhaps the conceptual leap between building something that floats on water and something which catches the wind is not so great.

This evidence has spawned a controversy among anthropologists about whether language was necessary to build and navigate such craft. The Homo Erectus lacked a certain gene that facilitated speaking. However, it is hard for anyone who has sailed to imagine engaging in that activity without a high level of communication: “Steer a little that way.” “Careful of the shoal.” “Let’s land there.” And we can’t forget the hominin mother, “Don’t put your hand into the water, dear. A shark will bite it off.”

Enough of our Homo Erectus ancestors had to make the sea journey to create a stable population where they settled. Scientists, speculating on colonizing space, have estimated that a minimum of 160 individuals with diverse DNA are needed to seed a new world. That means we are not talking about a few hapless individuals drifting on logs or swept along by tsunamis, rather planned expeditions like the Mayflower which, by the way, carried only 102 men, women, and children.

50,000 years ago, the ancestors of the aborigines made the voyage to the New Guinea/Australia land mass. According to DNA evidence, after the initial migration, 45,000 years passed before Asian and Indonesian traders appeared on the continent, and they did not stay. That means we are talking about a large raft making several trips or a fleet of rafts carrying the original residents.

RYUKYU ISLANDS

Then, there is a vexing experiment by anthropologists trying to navigate in a stone-age raft between the Ryukyu islands that stretch from Japan south to Taiwan. Human beings have lived on those islands for 35,000 years. Due to their isolation, the islands host many unique species. Not only were the Ryukyu islands unconnected to any large land mass 35,000 years ago, but a powerful current, called Kuroshio or the Black Current, made traveling from island to island impossible on the anthropologists’ raft. The current, if anything, was more powerful when the first settlers arrived. After improvements, the anthropologists made a second attempt with their raft, and they failed. The first settlers of Ryukyu islands apparently possessed maritime knowhow we have lost.

And how did the Neanderthals get to Crete, also surrounded by water? Again, we are talking about decision-making, planning, and organization to transport hundreds over a body of water.

A fascinating and unanswerable question speaks to our shared humanity with our hominin ancestors. Most of us experience a special feeling on arriving at a new place. We may just be on a vacation checking in at a hotel; we may be changing cities because we are changing jobs; we may be fleeing with our family persecution in another part of the world. The feeling is a sense of excitement at facing the unknown in unfamiliar territory—a heady mix of hope and fear. In our modern age, the risks from dangerous megafauna such as saber-toothed cats and giant hyenas has diminished, yet it is largely up to us to find our way in this different world. For some of us, merely inhaling the sea air brings to mind the promise and uncertainty of the future.

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“Who is staring at the sea is already sailing a little.” Paul Carvel

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When our hominin ancestors breathed in the sea air, then put their families aboard this first raft and launched themselves into the surf toward a distant smudge on the horizon, which they believed was an island, did they experience similar feelings? In other words, did they know what adventure was? I’d like to think so.