Maritime History - Age of Navigation

Age of Navigation

In early modern India and Arabia the lateen-sail ship known as the dhow was used on the waters of the Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Persian Gulf. There were also Southeast Asian Seafarers and Polynesians, and the Northern European Vikings, developed oceangoing vessels and depended heavily upon them for travel and population movements prior to 1000 AD. China's ships in the medieval period were particularly massive; multi-mast sailing junks were carrying over 200 people as early as 200 AD. The Astrolabe was the chief tool of Celestial navigation in early maritime history. It was invented in ancient Greece and developed by Islamic astronomers. In ancient China, the engineer Ma Jun (c. 200-265 AD) invented the South Pointing Chariot, a wheeled device employing a differential gear that allowed a fixed figurine to always point in the southern cardinal direction.

The magnetic needle compass for navigation was not written of until the Dream Pool Essays of 1088 AD by the author Shen Kuo (1031–1095), who was also the first to discover the concept of true north (to discern against a compass' magnetic declination towards the North Pole). By at least 1117 AD, the Chinese used a magnetic needle that was submersed in a bowl of water, and would point in the southern cardinal direction. The first use of a magnetized needle for seafaring navigation in Europe was written of by Alexander Neckham, circa 1190 AD. Around 1300 AD, the pivot-needle dry-box compass was invented in Europe, its cardinal direction pointed north, similar to the modern-day mariners compass. There was also the addition of the compass-card in Europe, which was later adopted by the Chinese through contact with Japanese pirates in the 16th century.