History of navigation

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Map of the world produced in 1689.
Map of the world produced in 1689.

In the pre-modern history of human migration and discovery of new lands by navigating the oceans, a few peoples have excelled as sea-faring explorers. Prominent examples are the Phoenicians, the Ancient Greeks, the Persians, Arabians, the Norse and the Austronesian peoples including the Malays and especially the Polynesians and the Micronesians of the Pacific Ocean.

In the West, before the invention of the magnetic compass, the primary means of navigation was to stay in sight of land.[1] Travel away from land was possible for short distances, using the sun and stars.[1] This early celestial navigation was problemmatic and often resulted in the navigator becoming lost.[1]

In the China Sea and Indian Ocean, a navigator could take advantage of the fairly constant monsoon winds to judge direction.[1] This made long one-way voyages possible twice a year.[1]

The voyage of the Greek navigator Pytheas of Massalia is an example of a very early voyage.[2] A competent astronomer and geographer,[2] Pytheas ventured from Greece to Western Europe and the British Isles.[2]

Nautical charts and textual descriptions known as sailing directions have been in use in one form or another since the sixth century B.C.[3] Nautical charts using stereographic and orthographic projections date back to the second century B.C.[3]

Contents

[edit] The Middle Ages

Further information: Middle Ages and Medieval ships
The cross-staff was an ancient precursor to the modern marine sextant.
The cross-staff was an ancient precursor to the modern marine sextant.

The word navigation has its roots in the Sanskrit word "Navgathi". India has a maritime history dating back to 5,000 years. The first tidal dock is believed to have been built at Lothal around 2300 BCE during the Indus Valley Civilization, near the present day Mangrol harbour on the Gujarat coast. The Rig Veda written around 1500 BCE, credits Varuna with knowledge of the ocean routes and describes naval expeditions. There is reference to the side wings of a vessel called Plava, which give stability to the ship under storm conditions. A compass, Matsya yantra was used for navigation in the fourth and fifth century AD.

The earliest known reference to an organization devoted to ships in ancient India is to the Mauryan Empire from the 4th century BCE. Emperor Chandragupta Maurya's Prime Minister Kautilya's Arthashastra devotes a full chapter on the state department of waterways under navadhyaksha (Sanskrit for Superintendent of ships) [1]. The term, nava dvipantaragamanam (Sanskrit for sailing to other lands by ships, i.e. Exploration) appears in this book in addition to appearing in the Buddhist text, Baudhayana Dharmasastra as the interpretation of the term, Samudrasamyanam.

Sea lanes between India and neighboring lands were the usual form of trade for many centuries, and are responsible for the widespread influence of Indian Culture on other societies. Powerful navies included those of the Maurya, Satavahana, Chola, Vijayanagara, Kalinga, Maratha and Mughal Empire . The Cholas excelled in foreign trade and maritime activity, extending their influence overseas to China and Southeast Asia.

In China between 1040 and 1117, the magnetic compass was being developed and applied to navigation.[4] This let masters continue sailing a course when the weather limited visibility of the sky. The true mariner's compass using a pivoting needle in a dry box was invented in Europe no later than 1300.[5][1]

Nautical charts called portolan charts began to appear in Italy at the end of the 13th century.[6] However, their use did not seem to spread quickly: there are no reports of the use of a nautical chart on an English vessel until 1489.[6]

[edit] The Age of Discovery

Further information: Age of Discovery
The Fra Mauro Map, "considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography" according to Roberto Almagià is a map made between 1457 and 1459 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro. It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about two meters in diameter.
The Fra Mauro Map, "considered the greatest memorial of medieval cartography" according to Roberto Almagià[7] is a map made between 1457 and 1459 by the Venetian monk Fra Mauro. It is a circular planisphere drawn on parchment and set in a wooden frame, about two meters in diameter.

The commercial activities of Portugal in the early 15th century marked an epoch of distinct progress in practical navigation.[1] These trade expeditions sent out by Henry the Navigator led to the discovery of the Porto Santo (near Madeira) in 1418, rediscovery of the Azores in 1427, the discovery of the Cape Verde Islands in 1447 and Sierra Leone in 1460.[1] Henry worked to systemize the practice of navigation.[1] In order to develop more accurate tables on the sun's declination, he established an observatory at Sagres.

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Spain was in the vanguard of European global exploration and colonial expansion. Spain opened trade routes across the oceans, specially the transatlantic expedition of Christopher Columbus in 1492. The Crown of Spain also financed the first expedition of world circumnavigation in 1521. The enterprise was led by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan and completed by Spaniard Juan Sebastian Elcano. The trips of exploration led to trade flourishing across the Atlantic Ocean between Spain and America and across the Pacific Ocean between Asia-Pacific and Mexico via the Philippines.

Henry's successor, John II continued this research, forming a committee on navigation.[1] This group computed tables of the sun's declination and improved the mariner's astrolabe, believing it a good replacement for the cross-staff.[1] These resources improved the ability of a navigator at sea to judge his latitude.[1]

Astrolabe
Astrolabe

The compass, a cross-staff or astrolabe, a method to correct for the altitude of Polaris and rudimentary nautical charts were all the tools available to a navigator at the time of Christopher Columbus.[1] In his notes on Ptolemy's geography, Johannes Werner of Nurenberg wrote in 1514 that the cross-staff was a very ancient instrument, but was only beginning to be used on ships.[6]

Prior to 1577, no method of judging the ship's speed was mentioned that was more advanced than observing the size of the vessel's bow wave or the passage of sea foam or various floating objects.[8] In 1577, a more advanced technique was mentioned: the chip log.[1] In 1578, a patent was registered for a device that would judge the ship's speed by counting the revolutions of a wheel mounted below the ship's waterline.[1]

Accurate time-keeping is necessary for the determination of longitude.[6] As early as 1530, precursors to modern techniques were being explored.[6] However, the most accurate clocks available to these early navigators were water clocks and sand clocks, such as hourglass.[6] Hourglasses were still in use by the Royal Navy of Britain until 1839 for the timing of watches.[6]

Continuous accumulation of navigational data, along with increased exploration and trade, led to increased production of volumes through the Middle Ages.[3] "Routiers" were produced in France about 1500; the English referred to them as "rutters."[3] In 1584 Lucas Waghenaer published the Spieghel der Zeevaerdt (The Mariner’s Mirror), which became the model for such publications for several generations of navigators.[3] They were known as "Waggoners" by most sailors.[3]

In 1545, Pedro de Medina published the Arte de navigar, which appears to be the first book ever published professionally on navigation.[6] The book was translated into French and Italian, and many years later into English.[6]

In the late 16th century, Gerardus Mercator made vast improvements to nautical charts.[9]

In 1594, John Davis published an 80-page pamphlet called The Seaman's Secrets which, among other things describes great circle sailing.[9] It's said that the explorer Sebastian Cabot had used great circle methods in a crossing of the North Atlantic in 1495.[9] Davis also gave the world a version of the backstaff, the Davis quadrant, which became one of the dominant instruments from the 17th century until the adoption of the sextant in the 19th century.

In 1599, Edward Wright published Certaine Errors in Navigation, which for the first time explained the mathematical basis of the Mercator projection, with calculated mathematical tables which made it possible to use in practice. The book made clear why only with this projection would a constant bearing correspond to a straight line on a chart. It also analysed other sources of error, including the risk of parallax errors with some instruments; and faulty estimates of latitude and longitude on contemporary charts.

Fairly accurate maps of the Americas were being drawn in the early 1600s.
Fairly accurate maps of the Americas were being drawn in the early 1600s.

In 1631, Pierre Vernier described his newly invented quadrant that was accurate to one minute of arc.[9] In theory, this level of accuracy could give a line of position within a nautical mile of the navigator's actual position.

In 1635, Henry Gellibrand published an account of yearly change in magnetic variation.[10]

In 1637, using a specially built astronomical sextant with a 5-foot radius, Richard Norwood measured the length of a nautical mile with chains.[11] His definition of 2040 yeards is fairly close to the modern International System of Units (SI) definition of 2025.372 yards. Norwood is also credited with the discovery of magnetic dip 59 years earlier, in 1576.[11]

[edit] Modern Times

Further information: modern era
Edmond Halley's 1701 map charting magnetic variation from true north
Edmond Halley's 1701 map charting magnetic variation from true north

In 1714, the British Commissioners for the discovery of longitude at sea came into prominence.[12] This group, which existed until 1828, offered grants and rewards for the solution of various navigational problems.[12] Between 1737 and 1828, the commissioners disbursed some £101,000.[12] The government of the United Kingdom also offered significant rewards for navigational accomplishments in this era, such as £20,000 for the discovery of the Northwest passage and £5,000 for the navigator that could sail within a degree of latitude of the North pole.[12]

In 1731 the octant was invented, eventually replacing earlier cross-staffs and Davis quadrants.[12] This had the immediate effect of making latitude calculations much more accurate. Four years later, the first marine chronometer was invented.[12] The sextant was derived from the octant in 1757 in order to provide for the lunar distance method. With the lunar distance method, mariners could determine their longitude accurately. Once chronometer production was established in the late 18th century, the use of the chronometer for accurate determination of longitude was a viable alternative.[12] Chronometers replaced lunars in wide usage by the late 19th century.[8]

In 1891, radios, in the form of wireless telegraphs, began to appear on ships at sea.[13]

In 1899, the R.F. Matthews was the first ship to use wireless communication to request assistance at sea.[13] The idea of using radio for determining direction was investigated by "Sir Oliver Lodge, of England; Andre Blondel, of France; De Forest, Pickard; and Stone, of the United States; and Bellini and Tosi, of Italy."[14] The Stone Radio & Telegraph Company installed an early prototype radio direction finder on the naval collier Lebanon in 1906.[14]

By 1904, time signals were being sent to ships to allow navigators to routinely check their chronometers for error.[15] The U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office was sending navigational warnings to ships at sea by 1907.[15]

Later developments included the placing of lighthouses and buoys close to shore to act as marine signposts identifying ambiguous features, highlighting hazards and pointing to safe channels for ships approaching some part of a coast after a long sea voyage. In 1912 Nils Gustaf Dalén was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his invention of automatic valves designed to be used in combination with gas accumulators in lighthouses[16]

1921 saw the installation of the first radiobeacon.[15]

The first prototype shipborne radar system was installed on the USS Leary in April 1937.[17]

On November 18, 1940 Mr. Alfred L. Loomis made the initial suggestion for an electronic air navigation system which was later developed into LORAN (long range navigation system) by the Radiation Laboratory of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,[18] and on November 1, 1942 the first LORAN System was placed in operation with four stations between the Chesapeake Capes and Nova Scotia.[18]

In October 1957, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite, Sputnik.[19] Scientists at Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory took a series of measurements of Sputnik's doppler shift yielding the satellite's position and velocity.[19] This team continued to monitor Sputnik and the next satellites into space, Sputnik II and Explorer I. In March 1958 the idea of working backwards, using known satellite orbits to determine an unknown position on the Earth's surface began to be explored.[19] This led to the TRANSIT satellite navigation system.[19] The first TRANSIT satellite was placed in polar orbit in 1960.[19] The system, consisting of 7 satellites, was made operational in 1962.[19] A navigator using readings from three satellites could expect accuracy of about 80 feet.[19]

On July 14, 1974 the first prototype Navstar GPS satellite was put into orbit, but its clocks failed shortly after launch.[19] The Navigational Technology Satellite 2, redesigned with caesium clocks, started to go into orbit on June 23, 1977.[19] By 1985, the first 11-satellite GPS Block I constellation was in orbit.[19]

Satellites of the similar Russian GLONASS system began to be put into orbit in 1982, and the system is expected to have a complete 24-satellite constellation in place by 2010.[19] The European Space Agency expects to have its Galileo with 30 satellites in place by 2011/12 as well.[19]

[edit] Integrated bridge systems

Electronic integrated bridge concepts are driving future navigation system planning.[20] Integrated systems take inputs from various ship sensors, electronically display positioning information, and provide control signals required to maintain a vessel on a preset course.[20] The navigator becomes a system manager, choosing system presets, interpreting system output, and monitoring vessel response.[20]

[edit] See also

Nautical Portal

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Chisholm, 1911:284.
  2. ^ a b c Chisholm, 1911:703.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Bowditch, 2003:2.
  4. ^ Li Shu-hua, “Origine de la Boussole 11. Aimant et Boussole,” Isis, Vol. 45, No. 2. (Jul., 1954), p.181
  5. ^ Frederic C. Lane, “The Economic Meaning of the Invention of the Compass,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 68, No. 3. (Apr., 1963), p.615ff.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i Chisholm, 1911:285.
  7. ^ Almagià, discussing the copy of another map by Fra Mauro, in the Vatican Library: Roberto Almagià, Monumenta cartographica vaticana, (Rome 1944) I:32-40.
  8. ^ a b May, William Edward, A History of Marine Navigation, G. T. Foulis & Co. Ltd., Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, 1973, ISBN 0 85429 143 1
  9. ^ a b c d Chisholm, 1911:287.
  10. ^ Chisholm, 1911:288.
  11. ^ a b Chisholm, 1911:289.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g Chisholm, 1911:290.
  13. ^ a b Short History of Radio (PDF). fcc.gov. Retrieved on 2007-04-22.
  14. ^ a b Howeth, Captain Linwood S. (1963). "XXII", History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Ships and Office of Naval History, 261-265. 
  15. ^ a b c Bowditch, 2002:8.
  16. ^ Gustav Dalén, The Nobel Prize in Physics 1912: Biography.. nobelprize.org. Retrieved on 2007-04-17.
  17. ^ Howeth, Captain Linwood S. (1963). "XXXVIII", History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Ships and Office of Naval History, 443-469. 
  18. ^ a b Howeth, Captain Linwood S. (1963). "Appendix A. Chronology of Developments in Communications and Electronics", History of Communications-Electronics in the United States Navy. Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Ships and Office of Naval History, 443-469. 
  19. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Bedwell, Don (2007). "Where Am I?". American Heritage Magazine 22 (4). 
  20. ^ a b c Bowditch, 2002:1.

[edit] References

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