The History of Ships and Navigation
This will provide you with information on the sailor who wrote the message, as well as the type of ships he might have been sailing on before the shipwreck.
Sailors of Ancient Times
Egyptians were sailing as early as 2750 B.C. in papyrus boats. Greek sailors were learning more about India and England through wars and trading. Arabian, Chinese, and other cultures were also doing exploring and mapping before the European discoveries began.
Early Ship Building Techniques
• Ancient ship builders used a technique called Mediterranean whole moulding. There were three patterns used to make shapes, which were then cut directly from the timber.
Take a look at ships from different cultures.
Egyptian
Chinese
More ships from ancient cultures
Viking
Can you imagine getting on one of these ships and heading out far into the ocean?
Greek
Sailors didn’t even have good tools to tell where they were going! Look at these old charts. They were not very accurate. No wonder ships often sailed off course!
These were made over hundreds of years by sailors observing the land from the ship.
Sailors used nature to help them determine their location. With the correct tools, the sun, stars, and even animals could be very useful.
Natural Environment Used For Navigation Animals Birds Whales Bearing Dial Sun Astrolabe Other Stars North Star Quadrant
Migration Habits Migration Habits
Notched Stick
Through this chart, you can see how sailors used the natural world to develop tools and skills needed for navigating their ships. You’ll learn more about some of these later.
The red arrow is pointing to the North Star, which is also known as Polaris. Stars and other constellations helped sailors to figure out their position.
This is a quadrant. A sailor would see the North Star along one edge, and where the string fell would tell approximately the ship’s latitude.
A sailor could also use this astrolabe. You lined it up so the sun shone through one hole onto another, and the pointer would show your latitude.
So what is latitude, and why was it important to sailors? Lines of latitude are imaginary lines running east to west on the Earth’s surface.
90 degrees 0 degrees
90 degrees
The Equator is an imaginary circle around the Earth halfway between the North and South Pole. It is marked by the blue arrow on the picture. The latitude is 0 degrees on the Equator. As you travel north or south from the Equator, latitude lines (the red lines) help to figure out location.
The Prime Meridian is marked on the map above. The blue and red line is showing a latitude scale. A Portuguese map maker was the first to draw the latitude scale using the Prime Meridian. Having latitude lines was a big help for sailors because they could tell how far north or south their ship was, but the tools they had were not always accurate.
The next thing that navigators worked on was a way to tell a ship’s longitude. This would allow them to tell their position east and west. (Remember that latitude was to tell position north and south.)
The red lines are imaginary longitude lines that go from pole to pole. The Prime Meridian is 0 degrees longitude.
Sailors understood the idea of longitude long before they had a tool to measure it. Finally, in 1764, John Harrison created a very accurate chronometer, and this allowed navigators to figure out longitude while at sea.
So why were navigators trying to sail anywhere far in the first place? Why were they willing to risk their life through storms, flimsy ships, and bad maps?
Humans have always been curious. Some sailing was done because people wanted to explore new lands. Missionaries were interested for religious reasons. There were also those interested in finding gold, and other valuable goods. Trade became a very big reason to improve navigation. Explorers wanted to make money by trading, and by finding newer, faster routes to countries to trade with.
Well mates, we’ve seen that explorers have made progress over time. They have developed and perfected their tools and skills. We can always learn more about these ancient cultures by studying artifacts. This is why your research on the sunken ship is so important! Who knows what we will learn about the past from that old ship…
References
Text and Images From:
Boat Safe Kids:The History of Navigation. [Online] 7 April 2000 http://www.boatsafe.com/kids/navigation.htm Copyright Nautical KnowHow Inc., Stuart, FL 1998
European Voyages of Exploration. [Online] 7 April 2000 http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/HIST/tutor/eurvoya/Know .html Copyright The Applied History Research Group, The University of Calgary 1997
References Continued
Latitude:The Art and Science of Fifteenth Century Navigation. [Online] 4 April 2000 http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~feegi/ Polaris. [Online] 7 April 2000 http://einstein.stcloudstate.edu/Dome/constellns/pol aris.html Ships of Discovery Research. [Online 4 April 2000 http://einstein.stcloudstate.edu/Dome/constellns/pol aris.html
References Continued
The Columbus Navigation Homepage. [Online] 3 April 2000 http://steggy.minn.net/~keithp/index.htm Copyright Keith A. Pickering, Watertown, MS 2000 The Mariners’ Museum: The Age of Exploration Curriculum Guide. [Online] 3 April 2000 http://www.mariner.org/age/menu.html Copyright The Mariners’ Museum, Newport News, VA 1999 Voyage to Puna Ridge: Science Factoids. [Online] 4 April 2000 http://www.punaridge.org/doc/factoids/Default.htm Portions Copyright Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 1998