From the success of crossing Pacific Ocean by raft, a look back ancient Vietnamese’s maritime traditions

Abstract

With currently available research results and relics, a lot of researchers analysed that there are plenty of similarities between Southeast Asian and American civilization.  There are assumptions that Southeast Asia residents had successful crossing over the vast Pacific Ocean thousand years B.C. To clarify these assumptions, Tim Severin - an Irish explorer, historian, and writer, searched for a place to try to cross the ocean by raft, but he was not successful.  In 1991, he arrived in Sầm Sơn (Thanh Hóa, Việt Nam), built a bamboo raft and undertook a long voyage. After 6 months at Pacific Ocean on the small raft, the expedition completed 5,500 sea miles safely. With this success, the advantage of a simple vehicle which was used by many Vietnamese fishermen generations has been clearly shown; at the same time, ancient Vietnamese's unique maritime traditions are also affirmed. This is what the paper discusses.