The Navigator
Gunnar Thorkild, grandson of the last great Polynesian navigator, has rashly proclaimed, in a scientific paper, the existence of a legendary island to which all navigators go on the eve of their death. With his future at the Hawaii Institute on the line, he embarks on an epic voyage of discovery.
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- Fiction:
Taipan, by James Clavell
The Navigator, by Morris West
Non-fiction:
The Upanishads (not a single book, but a bunch of them)
The Bhagavad Gita
- >the sailors of the windward Solomon islands as their sailing instructions
That bit reminded me of a great book, Morris West's The Navigator. It's both a good adventure story (Robinson Crusoe style, but with a motley crowd) and probably a parable or lessons for people.
- The Morris West "The Navigator" is a really good read related to this topic (IMO). It's fiction, but I think some of the stuf mentioned is based on facts about the navigation skills the Polynesians had. A National Geographic team had visited many Pacific islands (across many island groups), done a study and made an article (or series) about it. I had read it a while ago.
Just did a quick search:
https://www.google.co.in/search?q=national+geographic+articl...
https://blog.nationalgeographic.org/2014/03/03/hokulea-the-a...
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/09/070927-poly...
- Loosely related topic: the tales of the ancient Polynesians finding and settling on many island groups in the Pacific, based on navigation skills they developed over time, involving the sun, the stars, the wind, the waves, ocean currents, bird flying patterns, etc. National Geographic magazine had an article or a series on it several years ago, and IIRC, they sent a team out to the Pacific area to research this stuff some, and to interview such living Polynesian navigators. I had read the article/series.
The Morris West book "The Navigator" is also interesting in this connection (though there is only a bit of discussion of the navigation topic in the book, it is not the main focus), and the book is a good read apart from that, both entertaining and for topics like human dynamics when on a voyage as well as when stranded on an island for a long period.
Update: Added link to his Wikipedia page:
- The Morris West [1] book, The Navigator, is an interesting read in this connection. A mixed group of people, headed by a charismatic and larger-than-life Prof., Gunnar Thorkild, of mixed ancestry (white + Polynesian), set out in a ship from Hawaii, using a secret map, to find a lost Polynesian island known to the ancient navigators - guided by an aged Polynesian relative (grandfather?) of Thorkild. They end up finding it, but during a storm, which wrecks their ship on the outer reef of the island. The rest of the book is about how they manage their lives there, their trials and tribulations (interestingly, the latter more due to human nature than nature :). (It's sort of an adult Robinson Crusoe type story with some differences.) Some sub-plots within the overall story. A pretty good read, IMO, and carries some lessons too, about leadership, human strengths and frailty, etc., including about facing death with dignity.
- The Navigator - by Morris West. Not new. Has a good story along with a few implied lessons about handling yourself and others. Set in the context of a sea voyage from Hawaii, to find a remote, uncharted island where ancient Polynesian navigators go to die. Is a bit like "Robinson Crusoe" or "The Swiss Family Robinson", after they find the island, with some masala (to use an Indian term) thrown in :-)
Masala:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masala_(film_genre)
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56966.The_Navigator
http://www.amazon.com/The-Navigator-Morris-L-West/dp/0688030...
