Career
He is best known as the first Hawaiian to practice the ancient Polynesian art of navigation since the 14th century, having navigated two double-hulled canoes (the Hokule‘a and the Hawai‘iloa) from Hawaiʻi to other island nations in Polynesia without the aid of western instruments. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Thompson is a descendant of Alexander Adams and James Harbottle, foreign advisors and harbor pilots of Kamehameha I. He graduated from Punahou School in 1972 and earned a Bachelor in Ocean Science in 1986 from the University of Hawai'i. Thompson was trained by master navigator Mau Piailug from the island of Satawal and assisted him on the first voyage of the Hokule‘a in 1976.
His first solo voyage was from Hawaiʻi to Tahiti in 1980.
Since then, Thompson has been the lead navigator on the subsequent voyages of Hokule‘a, including the Voyage of Rediscovery from 1985 to 1987. On March 18, 2007, Thompson and four other native Hawaiian navigators were inducted into Pwo as master navigators.
The ceremony was conducted by Piailug on Satawal.
