24 Facts About Mau Piailug

Pius "Mau" Piailug was a Micronesian navigator from the Carolinian island of Satawal, best known as a teacher of traditional, non-instrument wayfinding methods for open-ocean voyaging.

Mau Piailug earned the title of master navigator by the age of eighteen, around the time the first American missionaries arrived in Satawal.

Later in life, Mau Piailug was respectfully known as a grandmaster navigator, and he was called "Papa Mau Piailug" by his friends with great reverence and affection.

Mau Piailug received an honorary degree from the University of Hawaii, and he was honored by the Smithsonian Institution and the Bishop Museum for his contributions to maritime history.

At the age of four or five, Mau Piailug was chosen by his grandfather Raangipi to study as an apprentice navigator.

Mau Piailug initially protested his grandfather's teaching, preferring to spend his time playing on the beach with children his own age.

Encouraged, Mau Piailug learned basic navigational clues regarding the "stars, swells, and birds" from Raangipi, but his grandfather died sometime before Mau Piailug was fourteen.

Mau Piailug learned more about navigating by stars from his father, and how to fish and build canoes.

When his father died before he turned fifteen, Mau Piailug was adopted by his aunt and uncle.

Mau Piailug's studies culminated in his initiation as a master navigator in the Weriyeng school of navigation during the revered pwo ceremony presided over by Angora.

From 1969 to 1973, Mau Piailug became friends with Mike McCoy, a Peace Corps volunteer stationed on Satawal.

Mau Piailug first visited Hawaii in 1973, and McCoy introduced him to Ben Finney.

At the time, Mau Piailug was just 41 years old and the youngest navigator out of the group.

Mau Piailug feared that traditional navigation would die in his own culture, just as it had in Hawaii.

Mau Piailug had tried to teach the young men of Satawal the skills passed on to him, but he was not optimistic.

Further, Mau Piailug's people did not seem to care that traditional navigation was dying and could be lost forever.

Mau Piailug trained and mentored Native Hawaiian navigator Nainoa Thompson, who would later become a master navigator.

Mau Piailug spent years training on his own and with Mau.

Mau Piailug was the first Hawaiian voyaging canoe to visit the far reaches of Micronesia and her appearance stimulated interest in Micronesians in their own cultural history.

On 18 March 2007 Mau Piailug presided over the first pwo ceremony for navigators in 56 years on the island of Satawal.

Mau Piailug was awarded an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters in 1987 by the University of Hawaii.

Mau Piailug was honored for his "devotion and outstanding civic leadership" and for exemplifying "the spirit and purpose of the Museum's founder Charles Reed Bishop".

Mau Piailug stated that voyages of more than 300 miles were likely accidental voyages, with landfall at the mercy of wind and current.

The stars gave him highly reliable position information when visible, but navigators such as Mau Piailug manage to keep their position and tracks in mind even when blocked by clouds, using other references such as wind and swell as proxies.