What does Tevake mean anyway?
Tevake was one of the greatest Pacific navigators of the twentieth century. His name means “tropicbird”. Tevake himself once said that, like this bird he went “far and free”.
Tevake was born on Pileni, an island of the Santa Cruz group in the Temotu Province of the Solomon Islands. At about the age of seven, under his father’s guidance, he began learning to sail by stars, wind, and movements of the ocean. His navigational skills became legendary, and he passed them on to other younger navigators. Late in his life, he showed New Zealand explorer David Lewis how he navigated without instruments. Lewis then took this knowledge to the world.
