Continuing with the
last post about the type of ship Nephi built, and whether or not it was a large
raft as Stephen L. Carr and John L. Sorenson claim.
When
one talks about such rafts, one must realize that these rafts, like Thor
Heyerdah’s Kon-Tiki voyages, were
drift-voyages, i.e., rafts riding on easy currents moving along in the same
direction for thousands of miles (Kon-Tiki
voyage from Peru to Tuamotus, French Polynesia, covered 4,948 miles).
Taking
nothing away from Heyerdahl’s miraculous fete where he and four others on board
Kon-Tiki sailed the currents from
Calleo (Lima) Peru across and down into Polynesia. Though fraught with the dangers
of the sea, and facing the unknown, the five adventurers set out into the
current that swept them along the Peruvian (Humboldt) Current and into the
South Equatorial Current, which was the northern loop of the South Pacific Gyre
out and down into French Polynesia.
Left: Map
showing the course of Kon-Tiki, picking up the south gyre current (white
arrows) and flowing with the current toward French Polynesia; Right: The
Kon-Tiki in the first leg of the voyage
The
voyage was a simple one of riding the currents, which is what rafts are made to
do, and the currents took Kon-Tiki in a rather simple, easy voyage. As one crew
member said after the voyage, “The biggest danger was being swept overboard by
strong winds,” which almost happened when one man was nearly lost, since the
raft could not be turned around or stopped along its path. The winds and
currents were what propelled the raft, and the current was what took the raft
along its course. For the most part, it was a leisurely journey lasting 101 days.
According to Knut Haugland, a crewmember on Kon-Tiki, “After
93 days at sea the expedition sighted land for the first time as the raft
drifted helplessly past Puka-puka on
the eastern fringe of the Tuamotu group. Four days later the Kon-Tiki passed so close to the island
of Angatau that the natives ashore
paddled out to the raft with their canoes, but once again we were swept past.” When
Raroia was reached after 101
days, the raft was caught in the surf and wrecked on the windward side of a
coral reef just off the island.
Kon-Tiki
was caught in two storms, one of which lasted for five days, but the balsa logs
rode the waves with incredible ease, and as mass of water crashed down on the
stern of the raft, it ran out through the gaps between the logs. A raft with a
solid or near-solid floor would have been broken up by the waves crashing on
it.
Thor
Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki design was of balsa logs and reeds stretched over the deck
so water could flow freely through, upward and downward, thus avoiding any
possibility of sinking
In
all this, we need to keep in mind that these were not family voyages with wives
and children, but captained and crewed by hardy, adventuresome explorers, fully
capable of defying death and discomfort for months on end. On the other hand,
the rafts shown below are “living” rafts, or “homes.” They were found on
rivers, or in large bays, or among close island groups. Rafts that were on the
seas were typically for cargo hauling or trading, and were coastal vessels or
moved with currents away from land. They were not sea-going vessels in the
sense that some want us to believe today, and very few vessels moved too far
away from land, even among islands, unless they knew that currents would take
them there.
Sorenson in a “Journal
of Book of Mormon Studies” (JBMS) interview talked about an 1810 drawing by Alexander von Humboldt
depicting a raft from Ecuador with a garden at one end and cooking facilities
at the other
Sorenson also claims nearly
identical rafts were used in southern China and Vietnam (as the above) for
thousands of years and were likewise steerable and safe; however, these rafts
were used in local waters and would not have survived in deep water over a
10,000 mile voyage. When these type rafts moved into deep water, they were
moved along by the currents—drift voyages, such as Thor Heyerdahl’s Kon-Tiki, RaI and RaII adventures,
and did not cross currents or go against currents, for they would have been
torn apart by the deep ocean waves. For cross-current sailing, the Polynesians
developed an outrigger canoe and were able to withstand deep water because they
could be moved over and through the waters with great speed by multiple rowers.
Polynesian single and outrigger canoes that were highly maneuverable
with multiple rowers that moved their boats quickly across the water, like the
ones Captain Cook reported seeing
Another point to be understood
is this ridiculous idea that ancient mariners sailed out into the unknown seas
on any regular basis as Carr and Sorenson would have us believe. We have far
too much written history of early eras, including journals from sea captains
and logs to show the opposite, including those of Columbus. Whatever possibility
there might be that someone took out over the deep sea, he was never heard from
again and history has no record of his achievement—very probably, if he lived
through the high seas, he died on some uninhabited rock or island
somewhere—consider what would have been known of Thor Heyerdahl and his crew
had they sailed the Kon-Tiki in a time before French Polynesia was inhabited.
When they crashed there and lost their raft, they would have been marooned on Raroia, a small atoll with no
opportunity to get home—they would
have perished and their adventure never known.
The much heralded and legendary voyage
around Africa by Phoenician sailors with Egyptian pilots in 600 B.C., though
Herodotus’ account in Histories is in
question, and may or may not be true, is quite often used as reference of these
voyages; however, that trip as recorded, an awesome achievement at the time, was
accomplished in single day voyages, putting in to land each night, sometimes
staying over in an area for several days, before sailing on another day. It is
even recorded that they stopped each year to plant grain and harvest it to
continue their voyage.
One exception to the idea of
rafts is in the area of Indonesia and some of the South Pacific islands where
groups of islands are closely clustered, and often can be seen from each other.
These were mostly canoe and outrigger vessels being paddled with some having
supplemental sails. Rafts, first used on rivers, then in bays and harbors, were
sometimes used for living quarters, and might remain in a harbor indefinitely—few
would have moved out into open seas.
According to K.T.
Weerasoorlya, Scientific Officer, National Aquatic Resources Agency, Bay of
Bengal Programme, 1982-1986, rafts can be used “in shallow waters with a push
pole; used as stealthy platforms for fishing shallow waters around lakes; in
sheltered coastal waters, anchored or drifting rafts can become effective…and
were traditional[ly] bamboo rafts used in Southeast Asia as an aggregating
device.” In fact, according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Education
Center on Navigation, “water transportation began anciently with using rafts
and dugout canoes in rivers, and in modern times steamboats carried passengers,
and along with rafts, carried cargo,” and also that “adzes suitable for
hollowing out logs were not yet invented, but giant bamboo, [was] ideal for
rafts.”
(See the next post, “Was
Nephi’s Ship a Mere Raft? – Part III,” for more on the type of ship Nephi
built, and why it was not a raft as Carr claims, or a canoe as Sorenson claims)
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