Columbus! Navigation!

Navigation!

It seems that people back in the day just had a better sense of direction. Story after story we read here in Travel Classics depicts weary travelers stranded in lost isles, floating in the middle of the ocean, or shipwrecked in strange worlds. Miraculously, however, most if not all of our heroes have a general sense of where they are, where they plan to go, and where they actually end up. Not too keen on the navigational arts, I found myself extremely curious while reading these tales. How did they find their way without all the conveniences of modern technology? In this day and age, every car comes with a GPS system named Kathy, John or Michael ready to guide you all the way to the 7-11 up the street from your house. I even know people that get a little bit frightened when they can’t figure out which way is uptown after coming out of the subway. I think that a little bit of old fashioned sense of direction could do me and a lot of other people good, so here is some info on how they did it:

The Digest of Columbus’s Log-Book on His First Voyage reveals some especially interesting ways that the explorers determined their location. First, and perhaps cutest of all techniques, was the use of animal sightings for navigation. On September 17, the crew sees a “white bird called the tropic-bird, whose habit is not to sleep on the sea.” And on September 21, they note that “a whale, a sign that they were near land, for whales always remain near land.” On September 29, they describe a “booby…a sea-bird but does not settle on the sea, and does not fly more than twenty leagues from land.” While it may seem tedious, the mention of animals in the log is so numerous and detailed that it must have been an extremely important tool for determining proximity to land. This makes me wonder, though—did all sailors have to have such vast knowledge of sea-faring animals? Or was there a special guy on board who knew all of this stuff? And what about sailors’ knowledge in general? What made a sailor a competent sailor?

While googling for an answer to some of these questions, I was directed to The Columbus Navigation site, an apparently award-winning site that tells all about Columbus and (Surprise!) his navigation techniques and tools. It seems that Columbus was a follower of the Dead Reckoning school of navigational thought—a method in which the navigator determines his position by measuring the course and distance traveled from a known location. It involved using pins to mark location on a map at the end of the day, and using that location as the starting point at the beginning of the next day. Speed and distance had to be measured every hour, and it was recorded on a special instrument called a “toleta,” also known as a traverse board. Seems like a lot of work to be doing every hour on the hour while there’s so much other stuff to worry about—maintenance of the ship, weather, pirates, etc. But apparently, the Dead Reckoning method is one that predates celestial navigation, so it’s understandable that it isn’t exactly the easiest method to maintain. (Side note: I wonder—do things get easier or harder to do with technology? I probably could do neither dead reckoning or work a GPS system in an SUV, but that’s just me)

According to the Columbus Navigation Site, however, some critics say that Columbus was actually a celestial navigator, but kept those records hidden for some reason. Just to make trouble, I’m sure, another camp claims that Columbus only experimented with celestial navigation and that any records that might exist are FRAUDULENT. The debate, I must admit, is quite amusing. I hate to take sides, but I’m going to say that Columbus was a dead reckoning navigator who sometimes experimented with celestial navigation and that any records of celestial navigation that exist are probably not fraudulent. But seriously, it’s actually really interesting. Celestial navigation was a product of the Portuguese. Columbus was from Genoa, which is why it makes more sense for him to have been a dead reckoning navigator. (According to The Columbus Navigation site, he must have learned it from Genoese pilots.) However, because he was an explorer for Spain, it makes sense that he would have spent some time in Portugal and might have learned the new art of navigating by the stars. Isn’t it funny how celestial navigation was the “new thing?” And here I thought it was the oldest type of navigation possible. You learn something new everyday.

I guess my exploration into the art of navigation won’t really help me out. I don’t plan on sailing any time soon, and I’m fairly sure if I do, my voyage will come with room service. But I do feel quite humbled knowing that people back then could do so much more with just their eyes, ears, and a few simple mathematical equations and tools than I can do with my computer.