Life before the compass

Life before the compass

March 18, 2023

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Navigation before compass

Without navigation, we would — very literally — be lost at sea. Navigation made it possible for early civilizations to explore new lands, establish trade routes and eventually connect with people on the other side of the world. Navigation allowed fishermen to find their way home and trade vessels to sail safely to foreign ports. Today, navigation enables a global economy by guiding ships, airplanes and trucks around the world using accurate and reliable navigation technology.

The earliest navigation methods involved observing landmarks or watching the direction of the sun and stars. Few ancient sailors ventured out into the open sea. Instead, they sailed within sight of land in order to navigate. When that was impossible, ancient sailors watched constellations to mark their position.

Marine navigation has come a long way from navigating with stars to tracking the position of ships with satellites. Let’s dive into the intriguing history of compass, examine the timeline and explore the path that brought us to where we are today.

CHINA

Naturally magnetized iron ore, or magnetite, also referred to as lodestone, seems to have been initially discovered in what is now modern China. If uninhibited by gravity and friction, this material was observed to orient itself to a north-south axis. During China’s Han Dynasty, between 300 and 200 BC, compasses were made but, ironically, not used for navigation - but rather for divination.

Divination is among the earliest known human spiritual practices due to humans natural desire to know the future, understand the present, and analyze the past. It has been defined broadly as a method for obtaining knowledge not easily obtainable by normal means, including gaining information on the past and future along with contacting ancestors and spirits.

THE BEGINNING OF NAVIGATIONIn the early days of navigation at sea, mariners traveled along coastlines and always stayed in sight of land. Sailors compared the distance between landmarks on the shore to gauge their progress at sea and estimate their geographic position. Using recognizable landmarks, fishermen could find their way back to good fishing grounds, and traders could steer to distant ports. However, using this visual navigation technique restricted sea travel to shorelines and could be challenging on foggy days or when visibility was poor. Sailors could only venture out into open waters when they could follow a wide continental shelf or rely on predictable ocean currents and winds. In time, mariners developed new methods of navigation for traversing open waters. In many different regions of the world, early navigators created surprisingly accurate navigation techniques based on the sun, stars and other elements of their environment.

Watching the sun

One of the simplest methods for determining a ship’s direction was to watch the movement of the sun across the sky. Sailors used the position of the sun as it moved from east to west to guide their route. At noon, they could determine north and south by the shadows the sun cast.

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When the sun set at night, sailors used the stars to navigate. Stars move across the sky from east to west, and some stars, called rise and set stars, begin and end their nightly path below the horizon. Sailors determined their heading by watching the movement of the stars the same way they watched the sun’s movement. Sailors measured the height of the stars in the sky to track their progress. Sailors also used their knowledge of the constellations to navigate. Because constellations change seasonally, mariners had to know which constellations were visible in the sky at different times of the year in each hemisphere. Based on the location of certain constellations in the sky, sailors could determine what direction they were heading. The North Star was also a valuable marker for early navigators.

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Navigating with stars

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Following Sea Birds

Some early seafarers navigated by watching the flight of birds. A sea bird with a fish in its mouth was most likely flying back toward land to eat its catch, while a bird with an empty beak was likely flying out to sea to fish. Sailors on open waters followed seabirds back to the shore. This method of navigation was particularly useful in very Northern latitudes where the stars cannot be seen for multiple months in the summer.

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Riding the Wind and Waves

In certain regions, early navigators determined their direction based on winds and water currents. In the Mediterranean, sailors distinguished between the warm south wind and cold north wind to get their bearings. Eventually, the eight principal winds were named and the directions of these winds became the points of the wind rose that was marked on early ocean charts.

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The compass was one of the earliest navigational tools and continues to play a crucial role in marine navigation. Although it is not known when the compass was first invented, there are stories of Chinese armies using magnetized iron to direct their troops as early as the third millennium B.C. In the West, the first mention of a compass used for navigation at sea was in the 12th century by the Englishman Alexander Neckham. Although early navigators still relied heavily on celestial navigation, compasses made it possible for sailors to navigate on overcast days when they could not see the sun or stars. Early mariners compasses were made by placing a magnetized needle attached to a piece of wood into a bowl of water. Later the needle was attached to a card marked with the wind rose that is still familiar on compasses today.

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