History of Sailing

[Tonguez]

By 1450 ships had evolved into real ocean going vessles. I mean 50 years later Columbus crossed the Atlantic and came back safely. As had already been mentioned the sextant and compass allowed ships to safely leave site of land and rigging had advanced to the point where oars or sweeps were only used when trying to navigate a confined area such as a harbor.

Of course the western Pacific Islands (and by implication the islands of SE Asia where the inhabitants origanted) was populated by 3000BC with people who used catamaran technology and advanced navigation techniques to explore the Pacific ocean far from site of land and travelling upwind (which was logically safer although more difficult) to not only discover and settle a many scattered islands of the pacific but also to reach South America (probably 1000 years ago). The Tongan Vaka-tele (ocean going double hulls) were said to be big enough to carry two large canoes or 500 men and they were intimately aware of their environment and the weather patterns which allowed them to travel across the huge distances of open water.

I suspect the original question relates to European maritime history but in a general fantasy world their is no reason why the catamaran rather than the huge clunky monohulls of Europe can't be standard. Afterall the SE Asian ('Austronsian') ancestors of the Pacific peoples were out exploring the worlds greatest ocean whilst european craft were hugging the shorelines...

 

[Maldur]

Can this thread be addopted to the AlSiH2O's monday history thread directory?

 

[TheLostSoul]

I cannot see why not, but you should ask him or her (S)He would be free to use my post, as is or modified, as long as (S)he doesn't change the archaological facts and current speculation

 

[alsih2o]

I cannot see why not, but you should ask him or her (S)He would be free to use my post, as is or modified, as long as (S)he doesn't change the archaological facts and current speculation

All I do is put a link to the thread.

 

[fusangite]

Thanks everybody. Great work! I feel so much more educated. To clarify, I have read 1421; it's a mix of some good historical work and some really dubious methods. But my main interest at the moment is in Norse and Venetian ship technology in the 11th-14th centuries. I'm designing a transatlantic voyage in 1223.

 

[TheLostSoul]

I can try to look up a few things on Venetian shipbuilding in these centuries, but my specialty is Northern Europe (I study Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Copenhagen). As far as I remember, though, they had ships with one or two masts, V-shaped hull and was directly decended from the classical galleys. They could have castles, both fore and aft and generally looked somewhat like the northern cog, exept the hull shape.

The caravel was developed during the latter half of this era.

The Mediaterranean was well travelled in these times and began to approach the levels of trade that were present during the Roman Empire. That is why you begin to see a trade of shipping technology in the late 14th and early 15th century, between Northern Europe and the Mediaterranean.

I can try to read up upon Mediaterranean shipping in this era (both for fun and help ), if you like. It well take a month or two however... Most of what I have written here and in the earlier post was from memory amd the few notes and books I had near me

 

[Hand of Evil]

Thanks everybody. Great work! I feel so much more educated. To clarify, I have read 1421; it's a mix of some good historical work and some really dubious methods. But my main interest at the moment is in Norse and Venetian ship technology in the 11th-14th centuries. I'm designing a transatlantic voyage in 1223.

As a side note: It is thought that sailors burned around 6000 cals a day, 13 and 17 centuries, so a lot of space on ships went for livestock and food stores, this is why scurvey, rickeys, (sp) and such was common problems. In a magical world, bag of holding and cleric could fix theses BUT...