Winds In The Age Of Sail
Winds in the Age of Sail: The captain of a steam ship naturally chooses the shortest route to his destination. Since a sailing ship is pushed by the winds and currents its captain must find a route where the wind will probably blow in the right direction. Tacking was always possible but wasted time, a problem that grew larger on long voyages. The early European explorers were not only looking for new lands. They also had to discover the pattern of winds and currents that would carry them where they wanted to go. During the age of sail winds and currents determined trade routes and therefore influenced European imperialism and modern political geography. For an outline to the main wind systems see Global wind patterns.
Pilotage or cabotage, in one sense, is the art of sailing along the coast using known landmarks. Navigation, in one sense, is the art of sailing long distances out of sight of land. Although the Polynesians were able to sail the Pacific (with great difficulty) and people regularly sailed north and south across the Mediterranean, before the time of Columbus nearly all sailing was coastal pilotage.
Read more about Winds In The Age Of Sail: Asians, Europeans Eastbound, Europeans Westward, References
Famous quotes containing the words winds, age and/or sail:
“And such the trust that still were mine,
Though stormy winds swept o’er the brine,
Or though the tempest’s fiery breath
Roused me from sleep to wreck and death.
In ocean cave, still safe with Thee
The germ of immortality!
And calm and peaceful shall I sleep,
Rocked in the cradle of the deep.”
—Emma Hart Willard (1787–1870)
“... that’s what living happens to be ... the physiological denial of reverence and good manners and Christianity.... At your age one’s quite old enough to know what the essence of life really is. Shamelessness, that’s all; pure shamelessness.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“We sail across dominions barely seen, washed by the swells of time. We plow through fields of magnetism. Past and future come together on thunderheads and our dead hearts live with lightning in the wounds of the Gods.”
—Norman Mailer (b. 1923)