The Last Navigator

The classic account of traditional Micronesian navigation and “the last navigator,” Mau Piailug, who fought to preserve it.

For thousands of years, the peoples of Oceania have 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, a young sailor, Steve 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 way-finding and the moving story of one man trying to preserve his culture against the tide of modernity.

Now, 40 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. And throughout, Thomas has added a generous selection of colour photographs from his time on Satawal. The result is a lasting tribute to the spirit of the Satawalese, and to the Talk of Navigation.