A Short History of the Use of Seas and Oceans

Abstract

The history of ships and shipping technologies reveals the history of use and perception of the sea by human beings. It also serves as an example to reveal a paradigm shift in terms of sustainable management of seas and oceans. Utilization of the sea has always been strongly motivated by the basic needs of human beings. People have been obtaining resources from the sea since the Stone Age, and beginning in the early Middle Ages and continuing especially in the early modern era, there has been increased frequency of trading contacts, at first limited to coastal areas and ultimately crossing oceans. If large sea battles that led to ships being used as floating “battle positions” can be said to have dominated the stage of the sea in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, in the late nineteenth century and especially the twentieth it was pleasure trips and research issues that turned ships into hotels and laboratories on the water. Ships and shipping have always operated in interaction with human benefits, technologies, and the environment.

Over the past four decades, there have been decisive discussions about how to deal with our seas and oceans in the context of finite natural resources. As seen from a larger historical perspective, concern about sustainable use occupies a comparatively brief interval in human history. Nevertheless, in what follows the current concerns are not interpreted as a passing fashion but rather as being representative of a new societal consensus borne through paradigm shift. In the field of shipping, this has been expressed internationally as “green shipping”, i.e. environmental protection in maritime transportation. The goal of green shipping is to bring about a change in attitude in order to advance the sustainable use of seas and oceans as part of a responsible approach to nature despite similarly growing demands for greater economy, greater safety and adaptation to new tasks for transportation.

(Translated by Steven Lindberg)