“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery Ptolemy’s Almagest has been on the scientist’s best sellers list for centuries. But that wasn’t his only success….
Category: Navigation
A Return to the Stars
I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky, And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by, And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking, And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking….
Follow the Waves
“One learns more from listening than speaking. And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature sill have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls.” Thor Heyerdahl Yesterday was the anniversary of the passing of Thor Heyerdahl (October 6, 1914 – April 18, 2002). Anyone…
Follow the Black Birds
“A furore Normannorum libera nos, Domine” “From the fury of the Northmen deliver us, O Lord.” The Vikings had an uncanny way of judging speed and wind direction, recognizing current movements and pinpointing the times for high and low tides. While very little is known about their navigational methodologies and techniques, historians have suggested…
Follow the Stars
“According to the Persians best informed in history, the Phoenicians began the quarrel. These people, who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraen Sea having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long voyages, freighting their vessels with the…
The Navigators
“A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.” William G.T. Shedd I must confess that, whenever I quote William G.T. Shedd, I am usually standing safely on shore, far from the battering winds and unrelenting waves. In fact, most times I haven’t even made it on the ship, let alone…
