Evolution of Water Transport (From Ancient History to the Megaships of today)

From Ancient History to the

Megaships of today

• In ancient maritime history,

the first boats are

presumed to have

been dugout canoes,

developed independently

by various stone age

populations, and used for

coastal fishing and travel.

• A dugout or dugout

canoe is a boat made from

a hollowed tree trunk.

•The Ancient Egyptians had

knowledge

of sail construction. This is

governed by the

science of aerodynamics

•Most probably the first sailing

boat.

• This boat is entirely made

out of wood and it is held

together by ropes.

• In early

modern India and Arabia the late

en-sail ship known as

the dhow was used on the

waters of the Red Sea, Indian

Ocean, and Persian Gulf.

• Dhow (Arabic dāw) is theداو

generic name of a number of

traditional sailing vessels with

one or more masts with lateen

sails used in the Red

Sea and Indian Ocean region.

Historians are divided as to

whether the dhow was invented

by Arabs.

• There were also Southeast

Asian Seafarers and Polynesians, and the Northern

European Vikings, developed oceangoing vessels and

depended heavily upon them for travel and population

movements prior to 1000 AD.

• China's ships in the medieval period were particularly

massive; multi-mast sailing junks were carrying over

200 people as early as 200 AD.

• Viking Longboats (Northern Europe, 1000A.D.)

• These ships used 60 men to row the ship.

• Chinese Junks (1,100 A.D.)

• They were used as fighting and transport ships.

• Various ships were in use

during the Middle Ages.

Long ships were sea

vessels made and used

by the Vikings from

the Nordic countries for

trade, commerce,

exploration, and warfare

during the Viking

Age although scientific

analysis of the oak timber

shows at least one well

known ship was built in

Dublin, Ireland.

• A knarr is a type

of Norse merchant ship

famously used by

the Vikings.

• The cog was a design which

is believed to have evolved

from (or at least been

influenced by) the longship,

and was in wide use by the

12th century. It too used the

clinker method of

construction.

• The caravel was a ship

invented in Islamic Iberia and

used in the Mediterranean

from the 13th century.

• These wooden ships

were used as

battleships, and for

exploration.

• SS Savannah was

an American hybrid sa

iling ship/sidewheel

steamerbuilt in 1818.

She is notable for

being the first

steamship in the world

to cross the Atlantic

Ocean.

• The first ocean liners

made of iron and driven by

a propeller.

• When launched in

1843, Great Britain was by

far the largest vessel

afloat.

• The first oil tanker

in the world built by

the Nobel Brothers.

• RMS Titanic was a

British passenger

liner that sank in the North

Atlantic Ocean on 15 April 1912

after colliding with

an iceberg during he rmaiden

voyage from Southampton, UK

to New York City, US. The

sinking of Titanic caused the

deaths of 1,502 people in one of

the deadliest peacetime maritime

disasters in modern history.

• The RMS Titanic was the largest

ship afloat at the time of her

maiden voyage.

• First seaplane carrier. It was created by the Japanese.