History of Oceanography

Why study history of oceanography?

 History of Oceanography isn’t exclusive to marine science

 Understanding origins
 Helps us understand Why and how people apply marine science today
 Progresses science
 Oceanography’s history is about people, not just oceans and test tubes

Ancient uses and explorations (5000 BCE- 800 CE)

 Key reasons early civilization interacted with the ocean were

o Food
o Trade
o Discoveries of new lands
 The first true sea voyage was in 3200 BCE
o Under the auspices of the Egyptian Pharaoh Snefru
o 40 ships were used
 The first recorded voyage of exploration happened in 2750 BCE, using a reed boat
 The ancient Phoenicians
o Were located in the North African Mediterranean coast, where Libya is today
o Were known for their mighty ships and trade
o Were among the most important early seafarers
o Had 2 types of sailors
 Coastal sailors
 Open ocean sailors
o They contributed to ocean exploration by establishing the first trade routes throughout
the Mediterranean and as far north as Great Britain.
 Ancient Polynesian explorations and discoveries
o 2000-500 BCE
o Traveled the South Pacific to Fiji, Tahiti, Samoa, and Tonga
o Hawaii to Tahiti, over 2,000 miles
o Traveled light
o Ships were made from one or two canoes, a sail, a deck and outrigger
o First to travel beyond routinely in the open ocean
 Ancient Greek exploration and discoveries
o Greeks began to gather navigational information and writing it down as early
maps
o Greeks were the first to use mathematical principals and developed
sophisticated maps for seafaring
o Developed the Longitude/Latitude system
The middle ages (800-1400 CE)

 The European Middle ages (500 CE- 1500)

o The beginning of the Middle ages is also known as The Dark ages
o Europe entered an age of intellectual “darkness”
o The prevailing belief in the Middle Ages that the Earth was flat
o There was very little ocean exploration by Europeans during this period
 Viking Explorations and Discoveries (790 CE- 1100)
o Established trade routes throughout Britain, Ireland, Southern Europe, North Africa, and
Central Asia
o They discovered Iceland and Greenland later
o Leif Eriksson’s expedition
o 2 common ships
 Trading ships are wide and shorter in length, fits up to 6 to 8 men
 Warships-much longer and narrower, built for speed, with a large sail and space
for up to 60 men
 Chinese explorations and discoveries
o Chinese were responsible for inventing the magnetic compass
o First Compass used for seafaring was in 1125 CE
o Trade routes were well established in 1000 CE, routes extended as far as Korea, Japan,
and Australia
o More than 300 ships sailed under Chinese Admiral Zheng, known for traveling to 37
countries and around the tip of Africa.
o 2 Huge technological innovation that are part of modern ships today
 Central rudders
 Watertight compartments

European Voyages of Discovery (1400-1700)

 The 1400s in Europe was the end of the Middle Ages

 This period is called the Renaissance a period marked by “rediscovery”
 A new interest in long ocean expeditions arose. The primary motives were Economics, politics,
and religion
 Exploration of the New World
o In 1492, Christopher Columbus set out on the first of his four famous voyages
 He landed on a Caribbean island he did not reach Asia, because he was using
Ptolemy’s estimation of the Earth’s size
o From 1454-1512, Amerigo Vespucci voyaged to South America several times
 Vespucci is credited as the first European to recognize that South America was a
new continent
 o In the early 1500s, Vasco Nuñes de Balboa led an expedition that crossed the Isthmus of
Panama in Central America and he became the first European to sail in the Pacific
o The first expedition to set sail around the world to reach the east by sailing west was in
1519, under the command of Ferdinand Magellan

The Birth of Marine Science (1700-1900)

 Exploration for its own sake began in the 18 th century

 An important factor that contributed to this change was competition of the global conquest
between Britain, France and Spain
 Britain realized the more they knew about the seas and the world, the more effective they
would be
 The Royal Navy launched voyages with scientists and naturalists as part of the crew
 Over time, oceanographers further developed and researched the field of marine science to
what it is now