Travel / mobility / migration - Sailing the Mediterranean

Question 1

How did ancient sailors sail against the wind?

Answer 1

Tacking into the wind - way to sail against the wind without oars

Question 2

Was tacking difficult?

Answer 2

Hard to switch tack from port to starboard, hard on the rigging to switch 90 degrees so ancient sailors would go in a tight circle to switch over

Question 3

How did ancient sailors check the sea depth as well as navigation?

Answer 3

Sounding leads - lowered to the sea floor, put tallow/animal fat in the cup
Mud/sand differences in sea floor show how close a ship is to Egypt if it is traversing that line
Rope is marked - shows the depth of the sea (distance between hull and sea floor)
Animal fat glues itself to the sediment on the floor

Question 4

Name two methods ancient sailors used for navigation.

Answer 4

Stable wind regime, changes during the year but is generally predictable e.g. wind blows from the north west during a certain month
Certain constellations indicate a compass point - e.g. North star for north, keeping it on your left when sailing means you travel east

Question 5

Who provides evidence for ancient usage of sounding leads?

Answer 5

“For this is the nature of the land of Egypt: in the first place, when you approach it from the sea and are still a day’s sail from land, if you let down a sounding line you will bring up mud from a depth of eleven fathoms. This shows that the deposit from the land reaches this far.” - Herodotus 2.5

Question 6

What geographic method did sailors use to navigate?

Answer 6

Sailors used profiles of island or coastlines in order to navigate - harder to use mountain profiles as they dip below the horizon due to the curvature of the earth
Graves were heaped so that sailors could see them and honour the fallen hero - also used as waypoints

Question 7

How did ancient sailors predict winds according to seasons or patterns?

Answer 7

Summer in the Mediterranean is really hot, leads to evaporation which creates a high concentration of salt, sucks in water from the Atlantic and Black sea - lots of currents created which bounces off the islands in the Mediterranean. Eddies, currents, whirlpools etc.
Diurnal coastal winds - Winds blow in different directions based on day or night - if sailors are familiar with these patterns they can moor their boats depending on how favourable the wind is