Barry Pickthall - A History of Sailing in 100 Objects

Adlard Coles Nautical

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Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

First published 2016

Barry Pickthall 2016

This electronic edition published 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc

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Introduction

The oldest boat ever discovered is the Pesse canoe, a dugout made from pine thought to date back to 8200 BC, and undoubtedly powered by paddles. It seems to have taken another 3000 years for the Mesopotamians and Ancient Egyptians to come up with the concept of using the wind to propel their craft. Sailing boats became the means to transport goods and people across oceans and between trading empires. They also enabled warring powers to undertake campaigns at sea as well as on land. And as boatbuilders and mariners became more skilled, sailing boats became ever more sophisticated and complex.

Although arranged chronologically, this book is not a history of the sailing boat. Rather it looks at a number of items and events that have marked a turning point in technological development or human achievement at sea. There are plenty of ships and smaller craft, from the superb lines of the Viking warship at Oseberg to the equally magnificent but disastrous Swedish ship, Vasa and the clipper ships Ann McKim and Cutty Sark, that bookmark their era to dinghies from the tiny Optimist to the first planing dinghies such as the International 14 Avenger.

Other objects included are far smaller but equally crucial in the development of sailing, from the cross staff, astrolabe and sextant that allowed increasingly sophisticated navigation, to the radar and GPS that followed and now allow sailors to pinpoint their position with great precision. Significant turning points in more workmanlike items such as blocks, sails and spars are also covered.

This broad approach allows for an eclectic range of objects to be included. So while a lemon may seem an eccentric inclusion, the essential role of citrus fruit in combating the scourge of scurvy on long voyages is undisputed. Other objects such as scrimshaw, grog and the souwester all shine a light on the changing lives of sailors.

Essentially though, this book is a celebration of sailing, the boats in which we sail and the people who sail them. We hope you enjoy it.

1 : Naqada II pot

3,500 BC

Who invented the sail? Well probably never know for sure, but theres a simple dynamic that puts Egypt at the top of the list of candidates for this honour. And it all comes down to gravity. It was the life-giving force of the River Nile that created one of the worlds most advanced civilisations in Ancient Egypt. Archaeological evidence suggests that the Egyptians may have used boats to navigate that river in at least 4000 BC, and probably much earlier. But like all rivers, the Nile flows only one way: pulled by gravity to the sea. So while the Egyptians would have had a swift ride north, to the Mediterranean, it would have been heavier going heading south, inland, against the current.

Happily, the gods that created this beautiful oasis also devised a solution to this problem and arranged for the prevailing wind to come from the north. The early navigators just had to ride this current going north, and stick up a palm leaf to let the wind blow them back south. Palm leaves were eventually replaced with cloth, and thus the first sail was (probably) born.

Many depictions of boats have been found in the area, including the 2004 discovery of a half-boat painted on a granite pebble in around 7000 BC, thought to be the oldest image of a boat in the world. But the first clear depiction of a sail is on the Naqada II pot, painted in Egypt in the late Predynastic period around 36003250 BC. Its a wonderfully loose, carefree image of a boat sailing across water, presumably a river, with the check pattern at the top portraying a riverbank. The boat carries a square sail, so it would only ever be any use for going downwind, but nevertheless ideal for sailing back up the Nile after a visit up north, or for carrying produce to a market further upriver.

Historians are undecided about when the Ancient Egyptians switched from reed to wooden boats, or indeed whether they were building both types all along. Judging by the position of this boats sail, the boat is likely to have been of wooden construction, since a reed hull wouldnt have taken the strains of a sail placed so close to an end. Also, this boats hull shape is asymmetrical; reed boats are, by definition, symmetrical and shown as such in most contemporary images, so we therefore have to assume that the depiction on the Naqada II pot is of a wooden boat.

Whole fleets of boats have been discovered carved in rocks at Nag el-Hamdulab in southern Egypt (32003100 BC), and a square sail is clearly portrayed on an incense burner found in Nubia (32003000 BC). But the boat shown on the Naqada II pot is in a class of its own. Depicted for its own sake, rather than as a detail in a bigger picture, it gives us our first sense of the pleasure and excitement of sailing that would capture future generations of sailors and turn it into a worldwide sport.