NAVIGATION, Htsronv OF. In its widest sense, this subject is divisible into three sections—the history of the progressive improvement in the construction of ships, the history of the growth of naval powers, and the history of the gradual spread and increase of the science of navigation. Although these three sections are to some extent interwoven, the present article will be limited to a consideration of the last, the first two being sufficiently described under SHIP-BUILDING and NAVIES.
The first use of ships, as distinguished from boats, appears to have been by the early Egyptians. who are believed to have reached the western coast of India, besides navigat ing the Mediterranean. Little, however, is known of their prowess on the waves: and, whatever it may have been,_they were soon eclipsed . by the citizens of Tyre, who, to make amends for the unproductiveness of their strip of territory, laid the seas under tribute, and made their city the great emporium of eastern and European trade. :]'hey spread their merchant fleets throughout the Mediterranean, navigated Solomon's squad rons to the Persian gulf and Indian ocean, and planted colonies everywhere. Principal among these colonies was Carthage, which soon outshone the parent state in its maritime daring. The Carthaginian fleets passed the pillars of Hercules, and, with no better guide than the stars, are believed to have spread northward to the British isles, and southward for some distance the w. coast of Africa. From the 6th to the 4th centuries a.c., the Greek states gradually developed the art of navigation, and at the time of the Peloponnesian war, the Athenians appear to have been skillful tacticians, capable of concerted maneuvers. The Greeks, however, were rather warlike than commercial in their nautical affairs. In the 4th C. B.C., Alexander destroyed the Tyrian power, transfer ring its commerce to Alexandria, which, having an admirable harbor, became the center of trade for the ancient world, and far surpassed in the magnitude of its marine transac tions any city which had yet existed. Rome next wrested from Carthage its naval power, and took its vast trade into the hands of the Italian sailors. After the battle of Actium, Egypt became a Roman nrovince, and Augustus was master of the enormous commerce both of the Roman and the Alexandrian merchants. During all this period, the size of the vessels had been continually increasing, but probably time form was that of the galley, still common in the Mediterranean, though a more clumsy craft then than now. Sails were known, and some knowledge was evinced even of beating up against a
foul wind; but oars were the great motive-power; speed was not thought of, a voyage from the Levant to Italy being the work of a season; and so little confidence had the sailors in their 4-ill or in the stability of their ships (still steered by two oars projecting from the stern), that it was customary to haul the vessels up on shore when winter set in. Durine. the empire, no great progress seems to have been made, except in the size of the vessels; but regular fleets were maintained, both in the Mediterranean and on the coast of Gaul, for the protection of commerce. Meanwhile the barbarian nations of the north were advancing in quite a different school. The Saxon, Jutish, and Norse prows began to roam the ocean in every direction; in small vessels they trusted more to the winds than to oars, and, sailing singly, gradually acquired that hardihood and daring which ultimately rendered them masters of the sea. The Britons were no mean seamen, and when Carausius assumed the purple in their island, he was able, for several years, by his fleets alone to maintain his independence against all the power of Rome.
The art of navigation became almost extinct•in the Mediterranean with the fall of the empire; but the barbarous concpicrors soon perceived its value, and revived its practice with the addition of new inventions suggested by their own energy. The islanders of Venice, the Genoese, and the Pisans, were the carriers of that great inland sea. Their merchants traded to the furthest Indies, and their markets became the exchanges for the produce of time world. Vast fleets of merchant galleys from these flourishing republics dared the storm, while their constant rivalries gave occasion for the growth of naval tactics. So rich a commerce tempted piracy, and the Moorish corsairs penetrated every where on both sides of the straits of Gibraltar in quest of prey; evincing not less skill and nautical audacity than savage fury and inhuman cruelty. But the Atlantic powers, taught in stormy seas, were rearing a naval might that should outrival all other pre tenders. The Norsemen extended their voyages to Iceland, Greenland, and Newfound lafid, while they first ravaged and then colonized the coasts of Britain, France, and Sicily. The sea had no terrors for these hardy rovers; their exploits are imperishably recorded in the Icelandic sagas, and in the numerous islands and promontories to which they. have given names.