Navigating the World's Waters
Hull Maritime Museum contains a range of navigation aids used to travel around the world, some of them being used as early as the 17th century. Some bear the names of highly acclaimed instrument makers, as well as those of local dignitaries who owned them.
Navigation aids
When sailors started to venture away from the coast they needed to know how to navigate around the world safely, and for this they used very simple aids. These included the compass (to discover direction), the sandglass (to tell the time) and the sounding lead (to find the depth of the sea).
Sailors had to wait for developments in subjects like science, mathematics and astronomy in the 15th and 16th centuries before they could make reasonable headway across the vast oceans. Then they could begin to rely on the sun and stars to guide their way. Navigation aids often required great skill to use, especially in bad weather, and many ships had full-time navigators onboard. They would make readings with various instruments and then plot the ship's position on a chart to check that the ship was on course to its destination.
Maps and charts
From at least medieval times, when sailors began to produce nautical charts, we know that they had some idea of what the world looked like. Although their knowledge was very limited at first, globes and charts were periodically produced which showed a growing understanding of the Earth's geography. Hull Maritime Museum contains a miniature globe from the early 18th century, made by Charles Price who worked in London. It is in a shark-skin and wooden case which depicts a celestial view of the stars. A more detailed and accurate view of the world was being reached during the 19th century, which is reflected in George Pocock's inflatable globe.
As scientific and mathematical breakthroughs were made, navigation aids became more and more complex in design. Old ideas were updated and new types of instruments were brought in. Even when electrical equipment such as radar was introduced in the 20th century, sailors still often kept an old trusty manual aid onboard in case of emergency!
Today, systems such as GPS (Global Positioning System) enable sailors to pinpoint exactly where they are on the earth within the space of a few metres using satellites.
