MEN OF RAPA

Evening Post, Volume CIX, Issue 8, 10 January 1925, Page 13

MEN OF RAPA

I SOUTH SEA SAILORS A HOME OF NAVIGATORS ■■ SOME NOTABLE VOYAGES. . The quartermaster of the Pacific liner Was dark skinned, like a Maori, but he had not the Maori's features (writes Will'Lawson,- formerly of Wellington, in "The Christian Science Monitor").' A discussion arose among a. group of pas^ Bengers who were watching him marking out the deck for quoits and'other games. "I say the is a Tahitian;". a;' New Zealander guessed, "at any rate, I'm sure'he is not a Maori." ■ ■■■ -' To settle the "matter, they.-called the quartermaster up and asked him. ~" He said he came from '-'Rapa/' "''five days' sail from Papee4e." They all had to admit that "they did not know that Rapa lay 700 miles south-west of Tahiti, and that hundreds of Rapa men are to ba found: on ships .that trade in thePacific. They are the native sailor's-of the South Seas. ;. .'; To. such an extent has seafaring" claimed the young men, the population of''their little island, which -within the memory of white men amounted to more than 2000 people, is now just over 200, and of this number only 23- are -men who live and work on the island. That at least was the state "of things * in 1922. But since the scarcity of-men at Rapa was publicly remarked on;-num-bers of white men have gone"to live at Rapa. ' ;•; _■_ .•'••. '- It is a picturesque' island, about 20 miles in circumference. Mountain peaks rise like needle-points to a height of 2000 feet. Beneath them lies, a ..deep fiord on which is the:port of Ahurei, the chief village;of the island. "s ''"■"■' Vancouver discovered Rapa or Oparo :in.,1791. , From that time till to-day ships have' called there to recruit their crews': iFrom these ships the men of Rapa have scattered to the liners and cargo tramps, and now they are all over the Pacific, only returning at- times 'to their home port. ALWAYS- NAVIGATORS.;. ;,.. ■ But the men :of . Rapa were seamen long before the time o.i Vancouver, long before the white men were sailors themselves, and to-day is as yesterday .to them, bo far as their wandering over the Pacific is concerned. Hundreds 'of years ago their big sailing canoes even voyaged as far'south as tne polar seas. Six centuries ago, according to Maori history, a navigator named Kupe found' New Zealand, and explored its coasts almost to its southern extremity. He returned to his home in a Polynesian isle "from which the news jof his discovery travelled through the South Pacific, and a long time afterward there was a great migration of tribes to New Zealand, the,voyagers seeking a new land where there would be" rooni for each tribe to live in comfort. The identity of the islands from which these, migrants Bailed has never been feed, though Tahiti and Rarotonga have been regarded by many investigators as the most probable. But ithese lands never, producedseamen like the men of Rapa. 'Xhe fact' that 1 after they settled .in, New Zealand the Maoris lost all desire to sail beyond sight of land proves that their ocean^ voyage was a desperate venture, to which they- were driven.' by necessity. And no doubt they had 'as pilots some of the. men of Rapa to whom the. wide ocean was' a home. These Polynesian pilots had records in their .'memory of all the voyages. their ancestors had ever made. Old men would recite to the young navigators all the bearings by stars, and the currents and winds they would meet with, and the young men remembered it all, and-in turn passed it' on ,to, their children. They had no metal, these builders of ships to sail strong seas. Everything was pegged or lashed.to: gether, and they had no compass,; only. . the sun and stars to steer by. So when they sailed from the islands to New Zealand they steered due south till they were in,the latitude of that country/ and then turned at right-angles due westward, and sailed and paddled till they ;made a landfall. STORY OF A v GEEAT VOYAGE. In the great migration which populated New Zealand .with Maoris from the islands, these landfalls were -very much a matter of chance. . But; there'is » story of one voyage accomplished by a different type of ■ navigator, without doubt, in which the most exact landfalls were made, as though the voyagers had previous:knowledgei of their course.' It was told of by Elsdon Best, a.Maori student of high repute in New Zealand. • Mangaia arid Nuku, chiefs of rival tribes in an.island which most probably was Rapa, fought the matter out, and Nuku was defeated. It was agreed, then, that he and his remnant of people should emigrate to New Zealand. Within twelve months,, for his canoes had to be built and provisioned, he 'sailed off • with „ hi? people. But when .he • had been away a week or so, the tohungas of Mangaia's tribe remembered that some act of: "utu," or satisfaction after defeat, had not been complied witjj. l{ was; therefore,.necessary for^Mangaia to pursue Nuku and demand his ."utu.'.'. So Mangaia sailed, in two single, fast; canoes. His course lay south, till- he was in the latitude of Cook Strait. - Thenhe sailed westward and entered" the" strait in due course. Landing on one iof the Brothers, lonely islands near themainlahd, he found the still-warm embers" of. Nuku's fire, and he overtook Nuku's canoes off the western coast of the North: Island. Late in the afternoon they metin combat on Porirua Beach; and. the' fight raged till it was too dark to ..see,; when, a truce was called. ' Next morning they found that more than half of Mangaia's crews had fallen; Itf.'was. necessary for the two canoes to be lashed together for the voyage back to Rapa,: or whatever isle they had Bailed from. Though the name of it is in doubt,, they were undoubtedly men of Rapa who first sailed those courses and blazed the way for the crews that; went south to. New Zealand about that time. Since the" men of Rapa have never been settlers .in the history of the white men, they must have voyaged for the; love of .the" seamanship in the old days, just-as-they: do to-day. . i'■ , THE ISLAND OF RAPA. ['■■ It was an extraordinary but ; rery appropriate chance which made Rapa one of the first, if not the first island in the south sea» to be visited by steamers. The island lies in the track of ships proceeding between New Zealand arid Panama. In 1866, when the mail steamers began to-run on this route, connecting with Atlantic, steamers at Colon by means of the Panama Railway, it was found necessary to have a coaling station somewhere near Tahiti, yet further south, so that the low-powered vessels could take- advautage of prevailing winds. Rapa was chosen because of its situation and its, fine harbour- A coal hulk was established there, though the coal had to be carried to it in sailing ships, as the lignite fouiid in Rapa was too soft for steaming purposes. And for three years these 1500-ton steamers called twice a month at Ropa. This was another inc.' lor in causing the men pf Bupu to sentIm ow the (sag «g oailure, to tU

glamour of the steamers fascinated them. To-day they roam further than ever from .their island home,, many of them never' revisiting-it,, unless their vessels happen to call there. ' Very few steamers do so, connection with tho^ outside world being by schooner from Tahiti. Even, the French, authorities, who look after llapa's destinies, seldom visit it. But the population, so long-on the decrease, shows signs of increasing. There need be no', fear of ovsrerowding, how- ■ ever, for the demand fo* Rapa sailors is as keen now as ever it was.