I AM starting to think the following story is true. I always considered it folklore but now I wonder. Have you heard about the cursed boat that traveled the Pacific in days past?
There once was a boat full of mariners that started an epic voyage to cross the Pacific. It was a mixed crew of mainly men but also some women, and the navigator was a woman. That was not unheard of among the islands but it was rare.
Every time the boat stopped at an island several crew would get off and stay, while several more people from the island decided to join the voyage. In this way, the crew of the boat was always changing. At any time, you could find sailors from Micronesia, New Guinea, even Chinese or Tahitians.
But something sinister happened when the boat stopped. Many people on the island would die mysteriously. The victims were never the crew members who got off there, it was always someone else. Sometimes the older ones died, sometimes newborn babies, sometimes newlyweds. I know what you are thinking, that the boat spread disease among the islanders, and that may be true. But for most of the people who died, nothing could be found wrong with them. It was as if they simply stopped breathing. That does not sound like smallpox or syphilis.
After a while, word got out about the cursed boat so islanders stopped letting them come ashore. Sometimes the islanders attacked the boat to chase it away. This went on for some time, and some say they wandered the ocean looking for a port for several months, some say it went on for years. One person insisted the sailors never touched dry land again, but that sounds too much like the story of the Flying Dutchman to me.
The legends grew. Some thought that cannibalism was practiced on the boat. Others thought they were members of a strange cult that practiced human sacrifice. Some believed the sailors chose to remain at sea, like the Bajau near the Philippines. Others heard that the crew was made up of escaped criminals fleeing justice.
One time the sailors helped put an end to a long-standing war. They stopped at an island and learned that the people had been fighting another people of a nearby island since the time of their grandfathers. Their weapons were primitive so the sailors from the cursed boat helped out and brought a conclusion to the war. After the victory the winners asked them to quickly leave. They did not want to be friends, they only wanted their help in winning the war, and since that was finished they were no longer welcome.
Eventually the sailors crossed the ocean and found a place where no one heard of them or their curse. They were welcomed and asked to join the community, which they did. The local people were fascinated with stories of the sailors’ ancestral lands and many words from the languages spoken on the boat were incorporated into the local language. Of course, the sailors agreed among themselves not to speak of the curse or the coincidental deaths among the islands.
Who were these mysterious sailors? From where did they come and what were their names? What was the link between them and the mysterious deaths among the islanders? Where did they settle? Is this story true or was it made up in order to teach valuable life lessons?
Dr. BC Cook taught history for 30 years and is a director and Pacific historian at Sealark Exploration (sealarkexploration.org). He currently lives in Hawaii.
