Developments on the Seas (Overview 2)
From longboats and galleys to clippers and schooners, the big developments in transportion were on the seas from the first days of using the wheel until the early 1800's.
The Greeks and other Mediterranean civilizations had galleys with oars and sails which could move large loads along the coasts and among islands efficiently, but they were not much account in deep open waters, and they lacked navigation devices such as the compass. The true explorers of the seas in these early days were the Vikings. These Norsemen in their longboats traveled as far as Constantinople and America, and up many of the Rivers of Europe. They were both traders and raiders, and Norsemen are the forebears of both the Normans that every English speaker is probably familiar with and the Rus who built a civilization in Kiev from which Russia gets its name. The Vikings also used square sails and oars, but are usually not counted as part of the great Age of Sail.
The Age of Sail is contemporary with the great period of European exploration and expansion and can be dated roughly from mid 1400 to the mid 1800's. Some would hold that the starting date should be 1571 because the Italian fleet used many oared galleys against the Turks at the Battle of Lepanto, but 1400 is a good date especially if you are talking about caravels and aren't using military developments as a criteria. Also, dating things from Lepanto can be tricky because there are at least three major sea battles at Lepanto and it gets confusing. Back to the point, the compass or lodestone and other advances in navigation (some of which may have been adopted from Islam) and new ship designs from the caravel onward made it possible for Europeans to sail around Africa and cross the Atlantic. There are a huge number of sailing ship designs and innovations, but the caravel, the schooner, and the Yankee clipper are probably among the most famous. Many still consider the clipper ships the peak of commercial sailing technology.
