Ships of the seven seas

Imagine the world without ships. Mighty empires that now exist and have existed in the past would never have developed. Every continent—every island—would be a world alone. Euro...

The origin of sails is buried in the darkness of prehistoric days. Perhaps some hunter, paddling his dugout canoe before the breeze, had his loose skin cape distended by the win...

In the 17th Century a new people began to make their mark in the world of the sea. Formerly the development of ships had been almost exclusively, at least for two thousand years...

From the day a really successful steam-driven vessel first moved herself awkwardly in the water until the _Majestic_ slid from her German ways was not much more than a hundred y...

Most people who have had little experience with the sea, and many who have travelled on it, have little idea of the size of ships. Probably this is due to the fact that we see s...

Of the super-giant ships there were, in 1924, but ten, but as one starts looking for smaller ships, he finds them much more numerous. Under the British flag alone there are abou...

Much of the story of ships is contained in the story of ships of war, which, from time immemorial, have been vital factors in the lives of nations. The Egyptians fought battles...

Not all of the story of the sea is in the story of ships. Ships have always required shelter from the stress of sea, where repairs could be made, where cargoes could be loaded a...

Seamanship is the art of handling ships and is not to be confused with navigation, which is the mathematical science of determining ships’ positions and their courses. Only sail...

Navigation, I may be permitted to repeat, is the mathematical science of finding ships’ positions at sea and of laying down courses to be followed. For the designation of positi...

Just as the origin of ships is lost in the darkness of shrouded time, so is the origin of lighthouses lost. Perhaps to guide returning fishermen who all day and into the night h...

Ship design, prior to the opening of the 19th Century, was based very largely on rule-of-thumb methods. In ancient times, before Greece became a sea power, this was particularly...

The development of ships has been largely influenced by competition. The ship that can make the quickest voyages can demand the highest freight rates for most things. Furthermor...

Since time immemorial man has sailed the sea, yet is the sea but little known. To most of us it is an enigma, even though we may often have viewed its undulating surface from th...