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Wolfgang wrote:
"Even Ben Finney's navigator Nainoa Thompson of Hokule'a fame used latitude 
methods only after he had taught himself navigation reading astronomy books 
and taking an astronomy course at his university."

That makes a lot of sense. And of course, Polynesian men sailed on European 
and American vessels in the Pacific right from the beginning. They were 
frequent crew members on whaling vessels in the early 19th century. Those 
crewmen were exposed to scientific (Western) navigation methods from an early 
date. It would be difficult to identify "pure" Polynesian navigational 
methods.
 
And wrote:
"In other words: latitude is no useful or even reasonable concept in 
traditional Polynesian understanding of the world. But it hasn't been useful 
in Western civilization for a long time either. Only in the Renaissance did 
measuring the stars find a practical use. Portolan chart which had been 
around for at least 200 years only showed latitude scales after 1500. "

I don't think a clear understanding of latitude is required to use the 
meridian altitudes of stars. Anyone who travelled north-south distances 
greater than a few hundred miles would notice that the stars change their 
maximum altitudes --if they pay attention to the stars at all. It wouldn't 
even be necessary to know that the change in altitude is proportional to 
distance.

-FER




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