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:
“The human heart is like a ship on a stormy sea driven about by winds blowing from all four corners of heaven.”
—Martin Luther (1483–1546)
“One age is like another for the soul.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“For half a mile from the shore it was one mass of white breakers, which, with the wind, made such a din that we could hardly hear ourselves speak.... This was the stormiest sea that we witnessed,—more tumultuous, my companion affirmed, than the rapids of Niagara, and, of course, on a far greater scale. It was the ocean in a gale, a clear, cold day, with only one sail in sight, which labored much, as if it were anxiously seeking a harbor.... It was the roaring sea, thalassa exeessa.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)