About

Blue water sailing in the Pacific Ocean demands accurate navigation.  Done poorly, it could be catastrophic, as many vanished ships and wrecks testify.

The Sea Peoples exhibition explores Pacific sailing with both Polynesians and Europeans.  Polynesians were intrepid navigators who set out into the unknown, going eastwards to Easter Island, south to New Zealand and north to Hawai’i.  

Their methods of navigating were very different but effective, using a deep knowledge of currents, waves, ocean swells and the position of sun and stars.

Cook and his fellow Europeans used instruments, tested new inventions such as the marine chronometer, and created maps and charts.  The exhibition draws on their marvellous legacy of paintings and drawings together with loans from several major museums