how did boats in Christopher Columbus time navigate?

Question

how did they go from place to place

Answer 1

They had a compass so they knew which direction they were traveling. They also had a sextant (or octant) but the clocks were not very accurate. They could travel in whatever direction to whatever Lattitude they wanted, but couldn't plot their line of longitude without an accurate watch.

GPS is much more user friendly and requires less math for the end user. That's good for a guy like me.

Answer 2

A long time ago, before maps and compasses, before radar and satellites, sailors used the stars to navigate. In the N. Hemisphere, people would look for the big dipper (plough). By following the two outside stars they would find Polaris (the North Star). Then they would draw an imaginary line down to the earth and that would be the North Pole.

Also, if the moon rose before the sun set, then the side of the moon that was reflecting light was on the west. But, if the moon rose after midnight the lit side would be to the east.

With that knowledge, and a sextant (see http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/shackleton/navigate/escapeworks.html) they were able to get from point A to point B. Most of the time anyway.

Answer 3

Actually Columbus could have had a compass but not a sextant ( not invented until about 250 years later) Sailors in this period used an astrolabe which is a clocklike instrument that predicts that position of sun, moon and some planets and stars. With a compass sailors commonly use dead reckoning which means if I sail on the same compass heading for this much time at this speed I should be here, basically an educated guess.

Answer 4

Ol Chris and his boys had compasses, so they knew sorta what direction they were steering..

the other posts about celestial navigation and Polaris showing North are a bit misleading...they refer to a time much later.

The wonderful thing about Polaris.........the star the two outer stars in the Big Dipper point to......is that it is always a certain distance above the horizon depending on how far north of the Equator you are..sailors in Columbus' day..and for several hundred years before might not know exactly how far east-west they were but knew within a few miles just how far north of the Equator they were just by measuring the angle of Polaris above the horizon......if you knew the Latitude of where you wanted to go....say Cadiz or an Azores island you would sail to its latitude then turn right or left and sail till you got there. It was called "running your easting down".

Doesn't sound too accurate but it worked just fine from 1400-1792 when with a good sea going clock sailors could start figuring out their longitude (how far east west they were)

Answer 5

In Columbus's day they had compasses and sextants which gave the latitude but not the exact longitude this lead to a lot of accidents. The Sextant could measure the angle of the sun or moon at a given time this would tell you at what latitude you where at. The compass told you what direction you were traveling in relation to the north or south poles. The longitude problem wouldn't be solved until the 18th century when they invented a watch that could keep very accurate time and thus measure the difference between the time of the place you are in and the time in Greenwich England. The difference gives you your longitude.

Answer 6

Once an accurate timepiece was made a sailor could determine his longitudinal position by the time and sun position with a sextant. At night the stars were used. The constellations seemed to move around the North star, which seemed not to move. The number of degrees that the north star is above the northen horizon is the latitude. Compasses have been used for a long time.

Answer 7

Navigation at this time period was very hit or miss. You could only measure latitude, either by the sun at it's zenith for the day or Polaris by its angle above the visible horizon. They had a list of destinations with their associated latitudes. They sailed to that latitude and then sailed due east or west until they found it.

They also had very secret notes about the various locations and voyages they took including prominent features seen ashore, mountains, vegetation, composition of the sea bottom, (rocky, sand, shell coral, mud color, etc.) currents encountered. These detailed observations were used to re-locate the destination. They were considered state secrets and only shared with navigators of the same country to prevent other countries from establishing competing trade routes.

Answer 8

They utilized the position of the Sun and the stars. Hence the nickname of "Polaris" - the north star. This star can always be seen amost due north, with some variance based on the season. By knowing this, you can always tell what direction you are travelling. Also, since the sun always rises in the east and sets in the west, you can look at it's position relative to your heading and tell where you are headed.

Answer 9

How Did Columbus Navigate

Answer 10

they navigate relying on the stars, moon or sun.