Settlement of the Americas — Wikipedia
To gain a feel for the distances involved, I would recommend a flight to the Antipodes via Los Angeles. After a very interesting 1st leg over the Isle of Skye, the Faroe Islands, Iceland, Greenland (stunning in summer), Baffin Island, lake-riddled northern Canada, Calgary & Edmonton, Spokane, and Reno, the plane finally arrives at Los Angeles after an 11-hour flight. But you are not even halfway yet! The 2nd leg over nothing but completely empty Pacific Ocean takes 13 hours!!!
And yet the Southern Transpacific Migration Theory requires this distance be covered by virtually naked proto-Melanesian people in dugout canoes! With women on board! And for enough of them to arrive in a fit state to “go forth and multiply”! Asmat Men Paddling in Their Dugout Canoe Editorial Stock Photo — Image of papua, natural: 26381863 (dreamstime.com)
The theory relies on too many extraordinarily improbable “what-ifs” and coincidences all lining-up. (William of Ockham would not approve!)
Some more points:
45,000 years ago, most of Indonesia, Australia, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands was contiguous dry land — not islands.
The proto-Melanesians who lived there 45,000 years ago were sedentary land-lubbers who had arrived there by a mostly-land route. They only ventured out on the water in dugout canoes. And even those limited forays were restricted to rivers and reef-protected coastal lagoons. (The proto-Austronesian “Lapita” people, who came along much later, had somewhat better sea-going equipment and more of a sea-going culture. So they were able to leap-frog the already-occupied lands and settle on the empty Solomon Islands further to the east. Even then, it took the ocean-going Lapita people thousands of years just to migrate from the Solomons to Polynesia.
To get the benefit of westerly winds and currents, our proto-Melanesians would have had to travel a long way south (>40S) into very cold and ferociously-rough sub-Antarctic waters. (see General Grant (ship) — Wikipedia also Valentine Dyall “Famous Sea Tragedies” 1955) They would not have had the technology, clothing or other cultural adaptations to survive in this environment.
Also, being accustomed only to fishing with spears and (maybe) nets, they would have lacked the technology and culture for deep-sea fishing from a canoe in 10-metre-high waves.
Assuming they somehow DID get into the west-to-east stream AND somehow managed to master the art of deep-sea fishing, they STILL would have starved because they would have had to cross the oceanic equivalent of a desert. The 20-strong crew of the whaling ship Essex (the inspiration behind Melville’s “Moby Dick”) discovered this the hard way, when they tried to navigate this route (the fear of cannibals prevented them from taking a more sensible route). They ran out of food and water twice. On the first occasion they had the huge luck of finding Henderson Island on the day after the supplies ran out. The second time they were not so lucky. Miraculously 8 survived — thanks to modern technology and medicine, but none of them made it to South America Essex (whaleship) — Wikipedia.
Finally, if this theory were valid, it would surely be supported by archaeology showing a south-to-north progression “up” South America. But it is not.
