Shipwrecked Adventure

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The History of Ships and Navigation

Adapted from Shipwrecked Island Adventure!

http://oncampus.richmond.edu/academics/education/projects/webquests/shipwreck/

to meet the needs of our 2nd graders.

The History of Ships and Navigation

This slide show will tell you about tools and type of ships sailors used years ago.

Sailors of Ancient Times

Egyptians were sailing as early as 2750 B.C. 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 three patterns to cut shapes from wood. This was called moulding.

Take a look at ships from different cultures.

Egyptian

Chinese

More ships from ancient cultures

Can you imagine getting on one of these ships and heading out far into the ocean?
Viking

Greek

Sailors didnt 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!

Sailors used nature to help them figure out their location.

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Animals like whales and birds let sailors know they were close to land.

The sun, moon and stars helped sailors find their location.

The North Star, also known as Polaris, 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 A sailor could also would tell use this astrolabe. approximately the You lined it up so the ships latitude. 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 Earths 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.

A ships longitude tells sailors their position east and west. (Remember, latitude tells position north and south.) The red lines are imaginary longitude lines that go from pole to pole. The Prime Meridian is 0 degrees longitude.

In 1764, John Harrison created a very accurate chronometer (clock) that would keep time at sea. Finally sailors had a tool to measure longitude 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.
K

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, weve seen that sailors have made progress over time. They have developed and perfected their tools and skills. We can always learn more from these ancient cultures. Its time to put all youve learned to the test and see if your investigation can find the shipwrecked sailor and help the Coast Guard rescue him. Good luck!

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