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Boat
Financing
A ship Audio (US) (help·info) is a
large vessel that floats on water. Ships are generally distinguished
from boats based on size. Ships may be found on lakes, seas, and rivers
and they allow for a variety of activities, such as the transport of
persons or goods, fishing, entertainment, public safety, and warfare.
Ships and boats have developed alongside mankind. In major wars, and in
day to day life, they have become an integral part of modern commercial
and military systems. Fishing boats are used by millions of fishermen
throughout the world. Military forces operate highly sophisticated
vessels to transport and support forces ashore. Commercial vessels,
nearly 35,000 in number, carried 7.4 billion tons of cargo in 2007.
These vessels were also key in history's great explorations and
scientific and technological development. Navigators such as Zheng He
spread such inventions as the compass and gunpowder. Ships have been
used for such purposes as colonization and the slave trade, and have
served scientific, cultural, and humanitarian needs.
As Thor Heyerdahl demonstrated with his tiny boat the Kon-Tiki, it is
possible to achieve great things with a simple log raft. From Mesolithic
canoes to today's powerful nuclear-powered aircraft carriers, ships tell
the history of humankind.
The history of boats parallels the human adventure. The first known
boats date back to the Neolithic Period, about 10,000 years ago. These
early vessels had limited function: they could move on water, but that
was it. They were used mainly for hunting and fishing. The oldest dugout
canoes found by archaeologists were often cut from coniferous tree logs,
using simple stone tools
By around 3000 BC, Ancient Egyptians already knew how to assemble planks
of wood into a ship hull. They used woven straps to lash the planks
together, and reeds or grass stuffed between the planks helped to seal
the seams. The Greek historian and geographer Agatharchides had
documented ship-faring among the early Egyptians: "During the prosperous
period of the Old Kingdom, between the 30th and 25th centuries B. C.,
the river-routes were kept in order, and Egyptian ships sailed the Red
Sea as far as the myrrh-country."
It is known that ancient Nubia/Axum traded with India, and there is
evidence that ships from Northeast Africa may have sailed back and forth
between India/Sri Lanka and Nubia trading goods and even to Persia,
Himyar and Rome. Aksum was known by the Greeks for having seaports for
ships from Greece and Yemen. Elsewhere in Northeast Africa, the Periplus
of the Red Sea reports that Somalis, through their northern ports such
as Zeila and Berbera, were trading frankincense and other items with the
inhabitants of the Arabian Peninsula well before the arrival of Islam as
well as with then Roman-controlled Egypt.
Ancient ships have been discovered to have been possessed by the
medieval peoples of Southern Africa through medieval shipwrecks found.
Such as the treasure shipwreck found in Namibia which belonged to late
antiquity/middle ages African sailors. The Swahili people had various
extensive trading ports dotting the cost of medieval East Africa and
Great Zimbabwe had extensive trading contacts with Central Africa, and
likely also imported goods brought to Africa through the Southeast
African shore trade of Kilwa in modern-day Tanzania.
At about the same time, people living near Kongens Lyngby in Denmark
invented the segregated hull, which allowed the size of boats to
gradually be increased. Boats soon developed into keel boats similar to
today's wooden pleasure craft.
The first navigators began to use animal skins or woven fabrics as
sails. Affixed to the top of a pole set upright in a boat, these sails
gave early ships range. This allowed men to explore widely, allowing,
for example the settlement of Oceania about 3,000 years ago.
The ancient Egyptians were perfectly at ease building sailboats. A
remarkable example of their shipbuilding skills was the Khufu ship, a
vessel 143 feet (44 m) in length entombed at the foot of the Great
Pyramid of Giza around 2,500 BC and found intact in 1954. According to
Herodotus, the Egyptians made the first circumnavigation of Africa
around 600 BC.
The Phoenicians and Greeks gradually mastered navigation at sea aboard
triremes, exploring and colonizing the Mediterranean via ship. Around
340 BC, the Greek navigator Pytheas of Massalia ventured from Greece to
Western Europe and Great Britain.
Before the introduction of the compass, celestial navigation was the
main method for navigation at sea.
In China, early versions of the
magnetic compass were being developed and used in navigation between
1040 and 1117. The true mariner's compass, using a pivoting needle in a
dry box, was invented in Europe no later than 1300.
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