EXPEDITION CREW—Tim Lui-Kwan holds an unfinished canoe bailer found preserved on Huahine Island in Tahiti. Other early Polynesian artifacts on the table include Tahitian war clubs, called patus, and a tapa beater. From left are Elaine Rogers-Jourdane, Toni Han and archaeologist Yosihiko Sinoto.—Star-Bulletin Photo by Warren R. Roll.

PRESERVED LOG—A mastlike post is recovered from the Huahine pond.—Bishop Museum photo.

CANOE RELIC—Yosihiko Sinoto is shown digging a trench to look for the end of a plank believed to be part of an ancient double-hulled canoe.—Bishop Museum Photo.

Pieces of Ancient Canoe Found

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…canoe plank, because of the L-shape, so what is it? That was the big question.

“SURPRISINGLY, we found a second piece about one foot below. The two pieces are the same size and the same shape.”

He said the logs that they found were round and well-worked and one was a boom to lash a canoe hull and an outrigger. “The form was very close to the Tahitian sailing canoe,” he noted.

After he returned to the museum, he began searching material on canoes in Oceania and studying canoe models to try and identify the large planks. Continue reading →