Double-hulled voyaging canoe (waka hourua, waʻa kaulua)
Canoa de doble casco (waka hourua, waʻa kaulua)
- Date
- c. 1000 BCE (muy aproximado) · confidence low
- Place
- Tonga and Samoa, western Polynesia, Tonga
- Credited to
- Polynesian navigators
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What it is
A vessel of two hulls joined by crossbeams and a platform, with a crab-claw sail, able to carry families, plants and animals across thousands of kilometres. It was the vehicle of the settlement of eastern Polynesia.
No ancient hulls survive; date and form are inferred from the settlement record, linguistics and the accounts of early Europeans (17th-18th centuries). The double-hulled type has no direct dating.
What it led to
- settlement of Hawaii, Rapa Nui and Aotearoa
- exchange among archipelagos for centuries
- present-day revival with replicas such as the Hōkūleʻa