The Age of Sailing in Europe
Sailing began long before ships were capable of crossing entire oceans. Phoenicians are known to have sailed from the area of present-day Lebanon and Israel to the Atlantic Ocean and down the west coast of Africa over two thousand years ago. But the Phoenicians’ boats (as well as those of other early Mediterranean sailors) were primitive in design and difficult to sail. These early galley ships had one mast and a single square sail, which meant they could sail well only downwind. Early sailors also lacked any reliable means of navigation on open seas. Once out of sight of land, sailors had nothing but the stars to guide them home, and without accurate timepieces and navigational tools, navigating by the night sky was a daunting and uncertain prospect. At that time, almost all travel by sea was within a single biogeographic province: from one end of the Mediterranean Sea to the other, or around the Baltic Sea, or from one South Pacific island to the next.
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