Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER FIVE
Early Explorers,
Basic Tools
Thus far, we have tackled navigation by reviewing the basic ideas of geodesy
and cartography. Now we can turn to the main theme of this topic. We will see
how these ideas apply to such a wide-ranging (in more ways than one) sub-
ject. I begin here with a look at the skills and feats of the navigators and explor-
ers before the European Age of Exploration began in the fifteenth century.
Exploration
If you are anything like me, you are always happy to read about—indeed,
are thrilled by—famous explorations from the past. There is something
quite appealing about a small group of single-minded individuals who
are expanding horizons, using their ingenuity to overcome adversity, and
emerging triumphant—sometimes—at the end of a long and arduous ex-
pedition. I relate a few of the greatest exploration stories over the next few
chapters, partly because exploration and navigation are closely connected,
and partly, I must admit, because I find explorers to be hugely impressive
individuals whose achievements deserve to be echoed down the centuries.
Exploration is not simply wandering through unknown territory as did,
for example, the early hominids that radiated out of Africa into the wider
world. These peoples did not need to find their way back, so they did not
navigate. True exploration is carried out with a spirit of inquiry (perhaps in
addition to more mundane motivations, such as the desire for land or
personal wealth) by members of a sedentary civilization who venture far
from home and who very much want to return, one day. Hence the link
with navigation: they have to find their way home. Some of the later
human radiations into previously unoccupied land involved true naviga-
tion. For example, the early Polynesians and Micronesians spread out from
