How Did Mulek Get to the Land of Promise? Part II

As mentioned in the past post, there are only four ways Mulek could have reached the Land of Promise by sea. The first way across the Mediterrean and out through the Pillars of Hercules was covered in the last post. Following are the the next two:

2. He left the Arabian Peninsula and sailed directly east, around India and through the Indonesia and then across the Pacific Ocean to land on the west coast of the Land of Promise.

In this second case, any passage eastward from the coast of Arabia would be impossible for an ocean vessel capable of sailing across deep water, a scenario thoroughly discussed in the book “Lehi Never Saw Mesoamerica.” In short, the winds and currents would be against such a voyage the entire ten thousand miles to the Western Hemisphere. The winds and currents flow from the Pacific Ocean westward in the opposite direction the ship would have to sail, and when those currents and winds hit Indonesia, they continue to flow westward in many swirling and cross-current directions, creating dangerous waters among the thousands of islands that block this passage from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean.

While it is true that shallow-bottom Chinese junks and coastal vessels operated among the islands to India, these were ships not capable of sailing into deep water where they would have been smashed to pieces in high waves and storms. And contrary to popular myth, such ships never reached the Western Hemisphere, a voyage of about 7,000 miles across the Pacific against winds and currents.

In addition, to think that those carrying Mulek across the sea would not have stopped and probably stayed in one of the hundreds of lush islands they passed seems out of character for emigrants--Zedekiah's royal household was not particularly receptive to the word of the Lord. Again, this would not have been a viable course for Mulek to take simply because of the contrary winds and currents and the need for very experienced seamanship to even negotiate such a dangerous course.

3. He left the Arabian Peninsula and sailed down past Madagascar, around the horn of Africa and up the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean to land on the east coast of the Land of Promise.

In the third case above, such a course around Africa might seem possible when looking at a map, however, the currents around Madagascar along the African coastal waters flows northward at all times, blocking any southern voyage. In addition, the currents and winds flow in the opposite direction around the Horn of Africa, and in the southern Atlantic, all currents flow southeasterly and about halfway to the north, they flow southwesterly—constantly in the opposite direction of a voyage to the Western Hemisphere.

The problem, obviously, is that the currents which flow within the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean, toward the southern tip of African, while so strong that early Portuguese ships found it almost impossible to sail against them and up the eastern shore of Africa, do not continue into the Atlantic. Instead, these winds and currents flatten out and are driven south by the southward flowing currents along the western coast of Africa, and into the eastward flowing Southern Ocean.

The early Portugeuse and later Spanish sailors found that sailing along the African coast was possible in a southerly direction, but a return trip required bucking headwinds and currents all the way unless they stayed within the coastal waters with their lateen sails, or swung far out into the Atlantic to pick up opposite winds and currents. Such an easterly course across the Indian Ocean and through Indonesia and then across the Pacific, always sailing into the teeth of opposing winds and currents, would not have been a possible course for Mulek's ship in 587 B.C.

(In the next post, the fourth possible way will be covered in “How Did Mulek Get to the Land of Promise? Part III” which shows the only route Mulek could have taken and where he landed in the Land of Promise)