The Science of Navigation

Abstract

Mankind’s earliest navigational experiences are lost in the shadows of the past. But history does record a number of instances in which ancient mariners observed the locations of the sun, the moon, and the stars to help direct their vessels across vast, uncharted seas. Bronze Age Minoan seamen, for instance, followed torturous trade routes to Egypt and Crete, and, even before the birth of Christ, the Phoenicians brought many shiploads of tin from Cornwall. Twelve hundred years later, the Vikings were probably making infrequent journeys across the Atlantic to settlements in Greenland and North America.