Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T15:09:58.826Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sailing Directions of the North Atlantic Viking Age (from about the year 860 to 1400)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Søren Thirslund
Søren Thirslund
Affiliation:
(Danish Maritime Museum, Kronborg)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

As long as man has ventured to go to sea, sailing directions have existed. Man's survival depended upon knowing the best fishing and hunting places and how to find these were secrets, told only to family or friends.

Later, sailing directions covered areas in the world where trade or new settlements had begun and, as early as 500 years B.C., some of these sailing directions were written down. They covered the Mediterranean Sea and part of western Europe and they were called PERIPLUS meaning ‘sailing around’. They contained almost the same information as sailing directions today, namely: harbours, anchorages, currents, possibilities for fresh water, provisions and other supplies.

Keywords

1.History.2. Sailing directions.
Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 50 , Issue 1 , January 1997 , pp. 55 - 64
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1997

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

1The Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea, p. 642.Google Scholar
2Grønlands Historiske Mindesmœrker. Copenhagen 1838–1848, reprinted by Rosenkilde & Bagger, Copenhagen 1985.Google Scholar
3Roesdahl, E. (1987). Vikingernes Verden, pp. 25, 232–39. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
4Marcus, G. J. (1954). Ocean Navigation of the Middle Ages: Northern Waters, p. 46. Oxford.Google Scholar
5Thorsteinsson, Bj. (1985). Island. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
6Thorsteinsson, Bj. (1985). Island. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
7Dasent, G. W. (1894). Icelandic Sagas. London.Google Scholar
8Grønlands Historiske Mindesmœrker, vol. III, pp. 210–11.Google Scholar
9Grønlands Historiske Mindesmœrker, vol. III, p. 215.Google Scholar
10Sølver, C. V. (1953). The Discovery of an Early Bearing-dial. This Journal, 6, 294.Google Scholar
11 Forum discussion (1954). A Norse Bearing-dial? This Journal, 7, 78.Google Scholar
12Thirslund, S. (1993). The Discovery of an Early Bearing dial — Further Investigations. This Journal, 46, 33.Google Scholar
13Marcus, G. J. (1980). The Conquest of the North Atlantic, p. 109.Google Scholar
14Grønlands Historiske Mindesmœrker, vols I, II and III.Google Scholar
15Marcus, G. J. (1954). Ocean Navigation of the Middle Ages: Northern Waters, pp. 124–5. Oxford.Google Scholar
16Granlund, J. (1967). Kulturhistorisk Leksikon for nordisk Middelalder, vol. XII, p. 610.Google Scholar
17Rafn, C. C. (1837). Antiquit. Americ, pp. 259–60, 262–63 and 451–52.Google Scholar
18Winther, Niels. (1875). Fœrøernes Oldtidshistorie, p. 36. Copenhagen.Google Scholar
19Grenlands Historiske Mindesmœrker, vol. 1, p. 207.Google Scholar