Global Positioning System Reference
In-Depth Information
Taiwan over 3,000 years ago and did not complete their migrations until
the turn of the second millennium, when they reached the last of the
unoccupied islands of the Pacific. We will see just how good these seafaring
explorers were at seamanship and navigation.
Navigation is all about applying knowledge of the world around us—and
above us—to get to a particular destination through unknown or feature-
less territory. As noted, I recount the achievements of certain great ex-
plorers in this topic partly because their stories inspire. If this is not enough
for you, if you ask for a closer connection with navigation, if you need
a more rigid justification for learning about the achievements of non-
navigating explorers, then I suggest that the results of exploration often
provided a spur to the development of navigation. Thus, Europeans of the
late Middle Ages knew that there was a place somewhere in the east where
the fabulous silks and spices that trickled along the Silk Road originated
(see fig. 5.1). We will see how this lure arose and how it spurred navigation.
Someone had explored these regions, and someone else had brought home
the goodies—probably many people, trading the valuable spices hand to
hand for thousands of miles. Europeans wanted to find the wealth of the
Orient for themselves, to cut out the middleman. Earlier, the ancient
Greeks knew that tin came from Cornwall, though they had to explore and
discover for themselves the route to that southern peninsula of a far-flung
island, in the realm of sea monsters; their trading rivals, the Carthaginians,
were not about to tell them. Later exploration led to the serendipitous
discovery of the New World, and developments in navigation were neces-
sary to make further transatlantic voyages quicker and safer.
Thus, exploration forms the historical backdrop of navigation and pro-
vides the incentive for navigational developments. Many explorers were
excellent navigators, but not all: exploration and navigation are two mas-
sive subjects with a considerable overlap, but they are not the same. In the
remaining chapters I will intersperse the stories of certain explorers with
the evolving science of navigation. The explorers will appear roughly in
historical order as if, while on a journey, we metaphorically encounter
them on the side of the road.
Some of these explorers were not accomplished navigators for the sim-
ple reason that they traveled over land and did not need to carefully esti-
mate their position and measure or calculate their direction home; they
asked directions or they relied upon the knowledge of those who trans-
ported them. Ibn Battuta is an example. You may note many eminent
omissions from my list of explorers; this perhaps reflects my Anglocentric
