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00:51:23
00:53:57
00:51:23
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Transcription: [00:51:23]

{SPEAKER name="Gordon Ekholm"}
...and even perfect to any great extent, the, the sailing techniques of, of Southeast Asia. You may have in fact be, have been forgetting some of the techniques of Southeast Asia. They were down to canoes instead of larger ships for instance. How the first people might have crossed the Pacific of course is a question, but the drift voyages of which have been a number from Asia to the New World, are probably an indication of how this might have occurred.

[00:52:11]
{SPEAKER name="Gordon Ekholm"}
In the nineteenth century, some fifty Japanese wrecks were found on the West coast of North America, in some cases, the people still alive on them. This was due to the fact that the Japanese weren't allowed to use seagoing, really seagoing vessels in the fishing trade around Japan. Part of the, part of the, this was part of the prohibition that against Japan's having any contact with the outside world. The fishing boats would get out a bit too far, get caught in the storm, their rudders would be broken away, and they would drift off. And in this case the winds and the tide would bring them to the Western shores of North America.

[00:53:13]
{SPEAKER name="Gordon Ekholm"}
This appears to be the only really feasible route of sailing from Asia to the New World. In more Southern Latitudes, the currents and winds are of course, in the other direction. This is well illustrated by the history of the Manilla Galleon, which always sailed in this manner between the Philippines and Mexico. It would go North, coasting Japan, far to the North...

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