Honiara, Guadacanal, Solomon Islands
Island hopping? Is it a grand strategy or is it just a necessity? General MacArthur’s grand strategy in World War II was island hopping, but wasn’t he just following in the wake of others?
When the planet is viewed from high over the Pacific, it is clear that it is the “water planet.” And what other strategy would you follow besides island hopping? Island hopping was mastered by the great Polynesian navigators. They memorized hundreds of stars to show the locations of hundreds of islands. They used clouds, birds, wave patterns, and reflections off of clouds to make islands “bigger” so they insured their arrival at a distant speck. David Lewis in his book, We, the Navigators, chronicles the skill of these great island hoppers.
Captain Cook, the greatest western navigator of all time, also island hopped. With the aid of the first chronometers for measuring longitude, he charted New Zealand, the east coast of Australia, and many islands; by World War II some of his charts were still in service. He even searched in vain for that great island in the south, Terra Incognita, reducing it to just a “modest size.” Tony Horwitz in Blue Latitudes followed in his wake.
And General MacArthur? He island hopped too. Today, we visited the first of the islands that sent the allied forces north, for the first time, in World War II. Guadalcanal! It stands with other iconic names of the War in the Pacific: Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Leyte Gulf, Coral Sea. Here, a war memorial commemorates that heroic effort that helped save the world from Axis domination. We have followed in the wake of the heroic figures of the ‘Greatest Generation.’
Dennis Puleston, long the dean of Lindblad naturalists and a bird artist, came through these waters on the Director in the 1930s. His vessel’s name is painted on the harbor at Tower Island in the Galápagos and then it was on to the Marquesas. Island by island they came across the Pacific and through the Solomons where Dennis had ‘long pig’ at a ceremonial dinner with a chief. His exploits are chronicled in his book, Blue Water Vagabond. During the war he helped develop the DUKW, an truck/boat that was used in amphibious landings throughout the Pacific. These efforts earned him a medal from President Truman. Dennis was but one of many adventurers who, because of the lure (as he put it) of the grass skirt island, hopped across the Pacific.
James Michener, in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the Tales of the South Pacific, gave us insight into the horrors of war: the randomness of who died and who survived, the ghastly way that death came to both victor and vanquished, and the utter ugliness of war. It is a heart wrenching story, but he saw another side, the human side of young men and women too far from home, too long from loved ones, too long in the boredom of supplying the fighting troops.
Bill Crawford, one of our guests, spoke at recap of his time during the war when he was stationed on a nearby island across “the slot” from Guadalcanal. Bill was a member of PT boat crew and today we were able to visit with him his Quonset huts that still survive on Makambe Island on the "back side" of Tulagi where we went ashore. It was an honor to take Bill to see where his "home" was in the winter and spring of 1943 and 1944.
South Pacific, the musical theater adaptation of Michener’s book, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, opened on Broadway in 1949 and ran for five years. It is one of the greatest musicals of all times with some of the most memorable songs ever penned. Rodgers and Hammerstein were superb in their creativity. And, what better way to end the day than to have some of our guests sing two of the most famous of these songs, “I’m Going to Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair” and “There is Nothing Like a Dame.” And while the remnants of the ravages of war surround us, for one moment at recap, we chose to recall the lighter side. As the sun set we continued our island hopping up ‘the slot.’
Island hopping? Is it a grand strategy or is it just a necessity? General MacArthur’s grand strategy in World War II was island hopping, but wasn’t he just following in the wake of others?
When the planet is viewed from high over the Pacific, it is clear that it is the “water planet.” And what other strategy would you follow besides island hopping? Island hopping was mastered by the great Polynesian navigators. They memorized hundreds of stars to show the locations of hundreds of islands. They used clouds, birds, wave patterns, and reflections off of clouds to make islands “bigger” so they insured their arrival at a distant speck. David Lewis in his book, We, the Navigators, chronicles the skill of these great island hoppers.
Captain Cook, the greatest western navigator of all time, also island hopped. With the aid of the first chronometers for measuring longitude, he charted New Zealand, the east coast of Australia, and many islands; by World War II some of his charts were still in service. He even searched in vain for that great island in the south, Terra Incognita, reducing it to just a “modest size.” Tony Horwitz in Blue Latitudes followed in his wake.
And General MacArthur? He island hopped too. Today, we visited the first of the islands that sent the allied forces north, for the first time, in World War II. Guadalcanal! It stands with other iconic names of the War in the Pacific: Iwo Jima, Tarawa, Leyte Gulf, Coral Sea. Here, a war memorial commemorates that heroic effort that helped save the world from Axis domination. We have followed in the wake of the heroic figures of the ‘Greatest Generation.’
Dennis Puleston, long the dean of Lindblad naturalists and a bird artist, came through these waters on the Director in the 1930s. His vessel’s name is painted on the harbor at Tower Island in the Galápagos and then it was on to the Marquesas. Island by island they came across the Pacific and through the Solomons where Dennis had ‘long pig’ at a ceremonial dinner with a chief. His exploits are chronicled in his book, Blue Water Vagabond. During the war he helped develop the DUKW, an truck/boat that was used in amphibious landings throughout the Pacific. These efforts earned him a medal from President Truman. Dennis was but one of many adventurers who, because of the lure (as he put it) of the grass skirt island, hopped across the Pacific.
James Michener, in his Pulitzer Prize winning novel, the Tales of the South Pacific, gave us insight into the horrors of war: the randomness of who died and who survived, the ghastly way that death came to both victor and vanquished, and the utter ugliness of war. It is a heart wrenching story, but he saw another side, the human side of young men and women too far from home, too long from loved ones, too long in the boredom of supplying the fighting troops.
Bill Crawford, one of our guests, spoke at recap of his time during the war when he was stationed on a nearby island across “the slot” from Guadalcanal. Bill was a member of PT boat crew and today we were able to visit with him his Quonset huts that still survive on Makambe Island on the "back side" of Tulagi where we went ashore. It was an honor to take Bill to see where his "home" was in the winter and spring of 1943 and 1944.
South Pacific, the musical theater adaptation of Michener’s book, also a Pulitzer Prize winner, opened on Broadway in 1949 and ran for five years. It is one of the greatest musicals of all times with some of the most memorable songs ever penned. Rodgers and Hammerstein were superb in their creativity. And, what better way to end the day than to have some of our guests sing two of the most famous of these songs, “I’m Going to Wash that Man Right Out of My Hair” and “There is Nothing Like a Dame.” And while the remnants of the ravages of war surround us, for one moment at recap, we chose to recall the lighter side. As the sun set we continued our island hopping up ‘the slot.’
