Page 48 - All About History - Issue 56-17

Through History

BOATS AND SHIPS

From the ark to the Ark Royal, humans have been designing vessels for
thousands of years — and some have changed the course of history

Dugout Canoe c.8200-7600 BcE
This ancient Egyptian
Dugouts are considered to be the oldest type of boat and date far back into vessel has a steering oar,
prehistory. They were used for transportation on rivers and lakes and there is making it easier to pilot
speculation that they facilitated the first human settlement of Australia
around 40,000 years ago. The most basic types are made
from hollowed-out logs such as the Pesse Canoe, which
was found in the Netherlands in 1955 during the
construction of a road. It is the world’s oldest
recovered boat and is now on display in
the Drents Museum, Assen.
This canoe was made
from a pine log,
Sir hollowed out with
Christopher an axe
Cockerell
1910-1999, British
Born in Cambridge, this distinguished sailing Boat c.5500 BcE
engineer helped to invent radar and
pioneered a secret navigation system Sails have been used to propel boats and ships for thousands of years — the
that allowed many Royal Air Force earliest known depiction of a sailing boat comes from Mesopotamia (modern
pilots to return home safely in World Kuwait) circa 5500 BCE. The Ancient Egyptians used simple square sails on
War II. After leaving his employer,
Marconi, he put his inventive their watercraft. They would hoist the sail to travel down the Nile using the
mind to designing the prevailing north-south winds, then row back on the current. Sails were also
hovercraft. adopted by Greek and Phoenician traders and the invention of the lateen
(triangular) sail around the 1st century BCE, which allowed a craft to tack
against the wind, paved the way for the age of maritime discovery.

Viking

longship

c.1st cEntury BcE
The iconic Viking
longship or ‘dragon-
ship’ was the first
vessel to have a keel, a
structural beam running
the length of the ship
beneath the hull that
made them faster and
more stable. They also
had a small ‘draft’
(the vertical distance
Coracles have been
between the waterline
used in Britain for
and the ship’s bottom)
hundreds of years
CoraCle c.2500 BcE so they could travel
There are depictions of coracles in cave paintings dating back to the Bronze Age and through shallow water
these simple craft, which can still be seen today in parts of Wales, were observed and were double-ended
by Julius Caesar when he invaded Britain. Shaped like upturned bowls with flat so they could reverse
bottoms, they’re paddled on fast-flowing rivers and are used by fishermen as they Longships were designed for quickly without the need
fast-paced raiding, but the
hardly disturb the water. They generally have a wooden frame and a waterproof to turn. These factors
Vikings also had slower cargo
covering, traditionally made of animal hide but now often canvas covered with tar, ships called knarrs combined to make them
and they are extremely light so can easily be carried by one person. ideal warships.
48