The Last Navigator

The classic account of traditional Micronesian navigation and the last navigator, Mau Piailug, who fought to preserve it, is now available in a revised edition illustrated in full colour.

As a young man piloting a small sailboat across the Pacific, Steve Thomas developed a fascination with ancient methods of navigation. He learned that, for thousands of years, the peoples of Oceania had sailed unerringly across the Pacific without compass or charts, guided only by natural signs—stars, waves, and the flight paths of birds.

In search of this secret knowledge, Thomas travelled to the tiny island of Satawal in Micronesia, home to Mau Piailug, one of the few surviving paliuw, or navigators. In The Last Navigator, Thomas tells how he convinced Piailug to accept him as his student and teach him the closely guarded Talk of Navigation. It is a remarkable book, offering at once a clear and precise account of Micronesian wayfinding and the moving story of one man trying to preserve his culture against the tide of modernity.

Now, forty years after his original journey to study under Mau Piailug, Thomas has worked with a new generation of researchers, including natives of Satawal, to prepare this revised edition of The Last Navigator. All Satawalese words are rendered in the now-accepted orthography, and the islanders, originally identified by pseudonyms, appear under their true names. Throughout, Thomas has added a generous selection of colour photographs from his time on Satawal, documenting the island, its people, and its seafaring culture. The result is a lasting tribute to the spirit of the Satawalese, and to the Talk of Navigation.

Author: Steve Thomas is familiar to television viewers as the two-time Emmy award-winning host of This Old House, Renovation Nation, and Save Our History. He is also an experienced home builder and sailor. Beginning in 1977, he sailed a 43-foot wooden sloop from England to San Francisco via the Panama Canal, Galapagos, Marquesas, and Hawaii. In the early 1980s, he journeyed to the remote Micronesian island of Satawal to learn the ancient technique of star path navigation, an experience that resulted in this book, as well as a documentary for the PBS series Adventure.

David Barrie, a Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation, is the author of the award-winning books Sextant and Supernavigators.

Selling Points:

• The classic, adventure-filled account of traditional Micronesian navigation by none other than Steve Thomas, who would go on to fame as the host of This Old House and other shows.
• In the early 1980s, Thomas, then a professional sailor, travelled to the remote island of Satawal to learn traditional star navigation from Mau Piailug, the "last navigator".
• This highly readable book is both a compelling human story and an important ethnographic account (which you can use to navigate your outrigger canoe across the Pacific!).
• This fortieth-anniversary edition of The Last Navigator is illustrated throughout with Thomas's own colour photos.