Ancient Navigators: Sir Walter Raleigh

Sir Walter Raleigh was an English aristocrat, writer, poet, soldier, courtier, spy, and explorer. He is also well known for popularizing tobacco in England.

Raleigh's plan in 1584 for colonisation in the "Colony and Dominion of Virginia" in North America ended in failure at Roanoke Island, but paved the way for subsequent colonies.[8] These expeditions were funded primarily by Raleigh and his friends, but never provided the steady stream of revenue necessary to maintain a colony in America. (Subsequent colonization attempts in the early 17th century were made under the joint-stock Virginia Company, which was able to raise the capital necessary to create successful colonies.)

In 1587, Raleigh attempted a second expedition, again establishing a settlement on Roanoke Island. This time, a more diverse group of settlers was sent, including some entire families, under the governance of John White.[9] After a short while in America, White returned to England to obtain more supplies for the colony. He was unable to return the following year as planned, because the Queen had ordered that all vessels remain at port for potential use against the Spanish Armada.[10]:125–126

The threat of the Armada was only partially responsible for delaying White's return until 1590. After England's victory over the Spanish fleet in 1588, the ships were given permission to sail. Unfortunately for the colonists at Roanoke, the small fleet first made an excursion towards Cuba. They tried to capture the treasure-laden Spanish merchant ships reported to proliferate in those waters at that time. White is said to have objected to this unplanned foray, but was helpless to dissuade the crews.[10]:125–126 They had been told by the experienced Portuguese pilot, hired by Raleigh to navigate the voyage, of enormous riches to be had. It was not until 1590, 3 years after White left, that the supply vessel arrived at the colony – only to find that all colonists had disappeared.[10]:130–33

The only clue to their fate was the word "CROATOAN" and letters "CRO" carved into tree trunks. White had arranged with the settlers that if they should relocate, the name of their destination be carved into a tree or corner-post. This suggested the possibilities that they had relocated to Croatoan Island (now Hatteras Island). But a hurricane prevented John White from investigating the island for survivors.[10]:130–33 Other speculation includes their having starved, or been swept away or lost at sea during the stormy weather of 1588. No further attempts at contact were recorded for some years. Whatever the fate of the settlers, the settlement is now remembered as the "Lost Colony of Roanoke Island".

Famous Shipwrecks:Union Ironclad U.S.S. Monitor, 1862

Though a comparatively tiny vessel whose foundering during a gale off notorious Cape Hatteras, Virginia on new year’s eve, 1862, taking sixteen of her crew down with her, was barely noticed by the press at the time, the sinking spelled a tragic end to one of the most revolutionary ships of its era. 

The brainchild of a little known naval engineer by the name of John Ericsson, the Monitor, in being the first all-metal, turreted warship in history, became the prototype for what would become the standard for warship design for the next century and a half. Derisively called a “cheesebox on a raft” by both sides, the little ship changed the face of naval warfare forever when it battled the South’s own ironclad warship, the CSS Virginia, to a draw off Hampton Roads, Virginia in March of 1862. While the battle did little to affect the outcome of the war, it signaled the end of wooden sailing vessels with fixed cannons and initiated the age of steam-driven, ironclad warships with revolving turrets, making the battle—and the ship—one of the most important in history. 

The ship’s precise location remained unknown for over a century until it was located 16 miles off the Virginia coast in 1973, after which is was designated a national historic landmark, making it off-limits to divers and salvagers. Eventually, however, the government gave authorization for elements of the ship to be brought to the surface, resulting in the recovery of its massive steam engine and, in 2002, its revolutionary turret. The site is now under the supervision of NOAA, with many artifacts from the ship, including her turret, cannon, propeller, anchor, engine and some personal effects of the crew, being put on display at the Mariners’ Museum of Newport News, Virginia.

Read More

Ancient Navigation: Egypt

Egypt: Barques, Barges, and Byblos Boats

 by Anita Stratos

The ancient Egyptians once again reached out of the past to awe the world with another of their buried secrets - the Abydos ships. In 1991 in the desert near the temple of Khentyamentiu, archaeologists uncovered the remains of 14 ships dating back to the early first dynasty (2950-2775 BC), possibly associated with King Aha, the first ruler of that dynasty. These 75 foot long ships are buried side by side and have wooden hulls, rough stone boulders which were used as anchors, and "sewn" wooden planks. Also found within their desert graves were remains of the woven straps that joined the planks, as well as reed bundles that were used to seal seams between planks. The Abydos ships have the honor of being the worlds oldest planked boats.

 The most ancient Egyptian boat appears to have been the papyrus raft, which was originally used to travel on the Nile, but not in open seas or rough waters. These fragile rafts were made from the papyrus reeds growing along the Nile, but because the reeds were so delicate the rafts required constant repairs or replacement. Travel along the Nile with these rafts was ideal, since the river had a steady northerly wind to propel the rafts upriver, while rafts going down the river simply flowed with the current.

 

 

No one knows exactly when the first ship was built, but we do know that the ancient Egyptians were creating ships with technological skills far beyond their time, well before the invention of the wheel. Egyptologists suspect that simple light rafts made from bundled papyrus reeds may have been made by hunter-gatherers who moved to the Nile Valley during the Upper Paleolithic period; of course, no specimens remain today. However, there is evidence of the presence of boats in the Naqada II culture, which immediately preceded the dynastic period. Archaeologists have unearthed red painted pottery with designs that include boat motifs as important symbols, and some interpretations stress the boats were used in a religious or ritual capacity. Further evidence for the early use of boats lies in tomb reliefs (ship building scenes were among the most popular motifs in tombs), paintings, and model boats dating from predynastic times through the New Kingdom. 

 

 

Papyrus rafts appeared to gain a somewhat sacred significance as far back as the first dynasty because of their association with the sun god. The earliest depictions of the sun god show him travelling on a reed float made of bound papyrus, a portrayal so ancient that it predated Egyptian knowledge of wooden ships. It is because of this connection with the sun god that the papyrus raft gained its religious significance, and even though it was used for more practical purposes in Egyptian civilization, the sacred and royal association stuck.

Read More

Canada may try biofuels in navy ships

In U.S., a green initiative aims to fuel an entire aircraft carrier group

The Canadian federal government is soliciting proposals for how it might use biofuels to replace traditional diesel it's navy vessels. (David Common/CBC)

The federal government is soliciting proposals for how it might use biofuels to replace traditional diesel in Royal Canadian Navy vessels — assuming the price is right.

"Naval vessels and platforms have traditionally operated by the use of fossil fuels to power many of their systems. Biofuels are environmentally much cleaner than fossil fuels, producing less air pollution and consuming some materials that would otherwise be considered garbage," says a notice posted Monday.

"Simply converting fossil fuel powered systems to biofuel-powered systems can be complicated and may become costly from the perspectives of financial, space and maintenance requirements, for example.

"In order to determine if the costs incurred can be justified, the benefits or efficiencies gained must also be determined."

Read More

Ancient Navigation: Egypt and Mesopotamia

The earliest knowledge of ships comes from Egyptian rock drawings dating from 6000 BC. Wood was the most popular material for shipbuilding. However, some early civilizations had no quantities of wood. In Mesopotamia, the first boats were built out of inflated and stretched animal skins and clay pots. The Egyptians used reeds. Early wood boats included: rafts, canoes, and dugouts. 

 

Egypt and Mesopotamia: from 3000 BC

Both the earliest civilizations, the Egyptian and the Mesopotamian, make extensive use of boats for transport on the Nile, Euphrates and Tigris. The Nile in particular provides a superbly predictable thoroughfare, for the wind always blows from north to south and the current always flows from south to north. Egyptian boats sail upstream, hoisting a large rectangular sail, and then are rowed back down the river.

This distinction is even reflected in the Egyptian hieroglyphs for travelling south (a boat with a sail up) and travelling north (a boat being rowed).
         

The Egyptians, with access to the Mediterranean, also use larger seagoing vessels. These become known as 'Byblos' boats, revealing that their trade is with the eastern coast of the Mediterranean. Byblos is the main port for the export of the valuable cedar wood of Lebanon, essential for Egypt's architecture and for boat-building. One of the earliest known boats, buried beside a pyramid at Giza and dating from around 2500 BC, is made from planks of cedar; it is 143 feet (44m) long and 20 feet (6m) wide.

Costa Concordia To Be Removed By September

Removing the cruise ship will take longer and cost more than planned, officials say on the eve of the tragedy's first anniversary.

The stricken ship Costa Concordia will be removed from the Italian coast between June and September - later than originally planned, officials have said.

The vessel has been resting on its side off the Tuscan coast since it capsized last year, killing 32 people.

Speaking on the eve of the first anniversary of the disaster, officials highlighted the difficulties of the salvage operation, including the huge size of the vessel and environmental concerns.

Franco Gabrielli, the chief of Italy's Social Defence Department, said officials were looking to remove the ship between June and September, depending on weather conditions.

... The salvage efforts will also require 400m euro (£331m) - up from the 300m euro originally estimated.

Sky's Europe Correspondent Robert Nisbet says the delays and overspending are linked to the technical complexities of an unprecedented operation involving a ship the length of 11 football fields and weighing twice as much as the Titanic.

Officials want to remove it as opposed to breaking it up on the site because the waters surrounding Giglio are of particular environmental significance - part of a marine sanctuary and a favourite spot for scuba divers. Read More

Famous Shipwrecks: Steamship S.S. Republic, 1865

When this Civil War-era side-wheel steamship sank during a violent gale off the Georgia coast in October, 1865, it went down with something other than the ordinary goods most vessels of the era carried. In the case of the Republic, her holds were filled with tons of silver and gold coins and ingots being transported from the West Coast to help rebuild the war-ravaged south, making her loss an incalculable financial blow to the country at a time when it was still struggling to regain its economic legs after four years of civil war. (The only positive thing from the sinking was that the ship’s entire crew and passengers managed to get off safely before the ship foundered, making it one of the few famous shipwrecks that did not result in loss of life.) The ship’s precise location remained unknown until 2003, when she was finally located after an extensive search some 100 miles off the Georgia coast in nearly 1,700 feet of water. The subsequent recovery effort not only yielded one of the largest caches of gold and silver coins in history, but included a fascinating assortment of 19th century goods that revealed much about life in the mid-nineteenth century. By the time the recovery was concluded, over 51,000 U.S. gold and silver coins had been recovered along with nearly 14,000 artifacts, making it not only the richest find in the history of salvaging, but the highest-tech archaeological excavation ever conducted. So successful—and lucrative—was the expedition, in fact, that it set a precedence for the emerging field of deep-water shipwreck exploration and recovery.

Read More
 

Ancient Navigators: Francisco de Orellana

Francisco de Orellana (1511, Trujillo, Spain – November 1546, Amazon River) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador. He completed the first known navigation of the length of the Amazon River, which initially was named after him.

 
Orellana entered upon an exploration of the Amazon system. Drifting with the current, he reached the mouth of the river in August 1542. Proceeding to Trinidad, he finally returned to Spain, where he told of hoards of gold and cinnamon and of encounters with tribes led by women resembling the Amazons of Greek mythology—a comparison that is presumed to have led him to name the river the Amazon.

Notes On Navigation: Nautical Mile

A nautical mile measures distance and a knot measures speed

NOAA depicts several maritime boundaries on its nautical charts. U.S. maritime limits and boundaries are measured by nautical miles.

A nautical mile is based on the circumference of the planet Earth. If you were to cut the Earth in half at the equator, you could pick up one of the halves and look at the equator as a circle. You could divide that circle into 360 degrees. You could then divide a degree into 60 minutes. A minute of arc on the planet Earth is 1 nautical mile. This unit of measurement is used by all nations for air and sea travel.

A knot is a unit of measure for speed. If you are traveling at a speed of 1 nautical mile per hour, you are said to be traveling at a speed of 1 knot.

A kilometer is also defined using the planet Earth as a standard of distance. If you were to take the Earth and cut it in half along a line passing from the North Pole through Paris, and then measure the distance of the curve running from the North Pole to the equator on that circle, and then divide that distance by 10,000, you would have the traditional unit for the kilometer as defined in 1791 by the French Academy of Sciences.

A nautical mile is 1,852 meters, or 1.852 kilometers. In the English measurement system, a nautical mile is 1.1508 miles, or 6,076 feet.

To travel around the Earth at the equator, you would have to travel (360 * 60) 21,600 nautical miles, 24,857 miles or 40,003 kilometers.

Day in the Life of Mission to Seafarers

Volunteers at the Geraldton Mission to Seafarers give their time to provide refuge and a friendly face to those who live and work at sea.

Day in the life of Mission to Seafarers from ABC Open Mid West WA on Vimeo.

Notes on Navigation: Longitude of a Place ...

Is the arc of the Equator or the angle at the poles contained between the Prime meridians through that place. Longitudes are measured from 0° to 180°,and named  East or West according to the place being East or West of the Prime meridian.

This cutaway drawing shows that the latitude and longitude of any place are based on the sizes of two angles that originate at the center of the Earth. For New Orleans these angles are 30 degrees (north latitude) and 90 degrees (west longitude).

Notes on Navigation: Geocentric and Geographic Latitude of a place:

Geocentric  Latitude of a place

The angular distance between a point on the Earth's surface and the equator, using the center of the Earth as the vertex. It differs from geodetic latitude in that it accounts for the ellipsoidal shape of the Earth rather than considering it as a perfect sphere


Geographic Latitude of a place

The angle between the plane of the Equator and the vertical at that place. In navigation, the term Latitude implies as observed, that is the geographic latitude.