A Nautical History
Since ships and boats have played such a pivotal role in human culture, a proper history of them would take a whole book. However, here are some quick facts.
Canoes from as far back as the Middle Archaic period, six to seven millennia ago, have been found in Florida, according to the Florida Department of State. This indicates that prehistoric people used canoes for transportation.
The ancient Mesopotamians and Egyptians used boats to sail and row up and down the Nile, according to History Net. The Phoenician civilization, which succeeded them, had at least two different kinds of boats: small sailboats to transport goods and people and crew-rowed galleys with ramming prows for war.
Naval battle remained like this through the Middle Ages: Boats rowed by oarsmen tried to sink one another, or the crew of one boat would try to board another and slaughter them. However, the Renaissance brought two major developments to European shipcraft. The first was the addition of multiple sails, increasing a ship's speed and, along with stronger wooden hulls, the range of ocean it could cover. The second development was the inclusion of cannons for a ship's defense. Being well armed further encouraged explorers to strike out alone, sometimes too hastily; after all, the pirates waiting for merchant ships had plenty of firepower too.
Wooden ships reached their zenith in the 18th and 19th centuries as Spanish, French, and English ships plied the high seas, bringing the colonial plunder of the New World back to Europe. In the mid-19th century, during the American Civil War, the world was astounded by a duel between two ironclad ships from the Union and Confederate navies, plated with metal armor over their wooden hulls. This proved to be an intermediary stage in ship building, and ships made entirely of steel (except for their wooden decks) were soon put out to sea.
The 20th century would bring another major nautical advance: the submarine. German U-boats sinking civilian U.S. ships were part of what drew America into World War I, and nuclear submarines (both powered by nuclear generators and carrying nuclear missiles) became part of the shadowy underwater terrain during the Cold War. The name of this website comes from a famous submarine: the USS Silversides, which distinguished itself in combat against the Japanese navy during World War II. In 14 patrols, it sank more than a dozen Japanese ships, only ceasing when the war did.
