MARITIME HISTORY

History

Early Vessels

Early societies used rafts , dugout canoes , reed , skin or bark covered canoes to travel across the water . The earliest known ships were built by the Egyptians around 3000 BC . It was a wooden framed boat covered with a wooded shell carrying about 20 oarsmen and several head of livestock . Steering was accomplished by means of at least one steering oar that projected over the stern , normally on the starboard side of the ship . The Egyptians later developed sails to aid their oarsmen and early paintings show vessels with a double mast and were later superseded by a single mast .

The Phoenician were probably the most capable shipbuilders of ancient times . They built the biggest and arguably the best merchant ships and warships of their time . They are credited with building a "round boat" which provided much more cargo space than galleys and depended on sail alone to ply the seas . It is said that these round ships not only travelled the length and breadth of the Mediterranean but also on to Britain and the West coast of Africa .The Phoenicians are also accredited with first designed and building multi banked oared vessels such as the bireme and trireme galleys .

The Greek galleys are said to have been made of naturally curved timbers . At the for'd end the deck was raised to form a structure called a forecastle from which archers could fire upon enemy vessels . It is from this term that we get our modern day name for the fo'c'sle . At the aft end of the deck was located a small accommodation block to house the Captain and his officers . The galleys were equipped with one or two masts to sail the open seas , however these were not used when the vessel was in battle . The job of propelling the ship then fell to the oarsmen who could number up to 200 .

The Romans spread their might across the sea as well as the land . They built many warships of different kinds with everything from boarding bridges to catapults amongst their arsenal .In later years ( around the 5th century AD ) they used hides soaked in vinegar to guard against incendiary missiles .
However the Romans also build ships to trade with various parts of their empire . These ships were as big as 175 feet in length and 45 feet in breadth . As a rule these ships were powered by square sails hung from up to 3 masts .

Around the same sort of time the Vikings were also exploring , trading and plundering the lands they came across . The Longships built by the Vikings and Danes came in many sizes . The smallest had about 30 oars and was called a snekkja " . Larger Longships had over 64 oars on them .
To explore far away lands and cross unknown seas the Vikings used the skuta . This has been described as a round ship and although it could be rowed was primarily sailed across the seas . It is these type of craft that travelled to Greenland , Iceland , Britain and Ireland .

At the same time the Chinese were also expanding their trade routes across the seas . They built a vessel that has withstood the test of time and had revolutionary ideas , such as a for'd collision bulkhead that Marco Polo marvelled at in his travels in 1298 . The name of this ship type is well known even today - the Junk . Essentially a Junk is a flat bottomed box sub divided by water tight bulkheads - something that was not adopted by the Western civilisation until the 19th century . The vessel is structurally rigid and the absence of a keel is compensated for by a heavy steering oar or rudder mounted on the centreline . By the 9th century the Chinese junks were carrying merchants to as far away as India and Indonesia .

It was not until around the 15th century that Merchant Ships and Naval Ships began to take on designs of their own . Whilst it is true that after the invention of sail most rowing vessels were largely restricted to the naval powers the sailing ships themselves were much of the same type . The only real difference was the amount of cargo of weapons they carried .

Generally around the end of the Middle Ages oars gave way to sail as the main means of propulsion . However in the Mediterranean rowing galleys still were extensively used until the late 1700's .

Until around the 19th Century merchant vessels were owned and operated by a merchant . It is thought that the start of commercial shipping may have been by the Phoenicians transporting goods across the Mediterranean . The later civilisations of the Greeks and Romans expanded and developed the ideas of the Phoenicians . The Greeks are said to have had a hughe merchant fleet numbering some 1500 vessels . While later in the 17th Century the Dutch operated a tramp service for merchants on a world wide scale.
The development of steam engines and the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 played an important role in the development of todays merchant fleets . Larger vessel could now carrying goods and passengers around the world in a shorter time and be less dependant on the weather and the fickle winds .The two World Wars lead to the development of rivetless ships , turboelectric engines , nuclear power , radar and better radio position equipment . Today computers , satellites and increased designs on diesel engines and engineering techniques have lead to more efficient and safer ships .

Other Maritime History Sites

• Urbies page
• Maritime History on the Internet
• Maritime History - Links to many maritime historical sites
• National Maritime Historical Society
• Titanic Historical Society
• Roman Navy - classis romana

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