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> Boats do not always sail the direction the wind is blowing. We'd have never got anywhere before marine engines if that were the case. Seafarers would not lea
by MikePlacid 4y ago
> Boats do not always sail the direction the wind is blowing. We'd have never got anywhere before marine engines if that were the case.
Seafarers would not learn how to sail against the wind until the early Christian era. Still, they got somewhere even before that.
- ciceryadam 4y agoPolynesian expansion to Eastern Islands and Hawaii wasn't a small feat.
- Maursault 4y ago> Seafarers would not learn how to sail against the wind until the early Christian era. Still, they got somewhere even before that. You're referring to the Lateen sail that appeared in the eastern Mediterranean as early as 100AD, but it was imported from possibly Egypt or the Persian Gulf, so its origin is older and elusive. But the spritsail can also sail upwind and is far older, only appearing in Greco-Roman navigation in the 2nd century BC.