The Brief History of Early Marine-Navigation

Abstract

This work was supported by Scientific Research Projects Department of Istanbul Technical University. Project Number: 42512. The aim of this study is to examine in the beginnings and development of early navigation systems and to reveal their relationship with disciplines such as astronomy, cartography, horology and map-making. Since prehistoric times, people have been travelling using waterways and highways. Before the transporting by air, oceans was the only way for early intercontinental transportation. Thus, people learned building simple boats to cross seas. As progressing of marine-navigation technologies, the importance of calculating route made it necessary to measure time and distance. Early navigators sailed by observing the celestial bodies such as the sun, moon and stars through the astronomical information. Especially the transition from the earth-centered universe model to heliocentric (Copernican) has astronomically affected the entire early navigation period. Moreover, navigators used early navigation tools such as dead reckoning and cross-staff. And also, they made nautical almanac called ‘’parapegmata’’ in Greek and used primitively designed compasses. Despite all these developments sailors mostly have lost their route due to misinterpreted rotations. Also it has not been easy to make accurate measurements on ships until the eighteenth-nineteenth centuries.