The Bluffton news. [volume] (Bluffton, Ohio) 1875-current, 1939-11-30

Prepared by National Geographic Society.
Washington, d. C.--WNU Service.
What an eventful day when
man first found that a floating
log would bear his weight!
What trial and error, what
wreck and tragedy interviewed
even before the first dugout, or
raft with clumsy sails of skins
or plated grass actually put to
sea and finally reached a neigh
boring shore safely!
Imagine the daring sailors
return from that first of all
voyages. Shouting fellow tribesmen
crowd about as they beach their
craft, excited over the strange fruits
and weapons the dusky Argonauts
have brought back, and gaze Curl
ously at the lone woman captive,
snatched from her coral-beach shell
ter as the invaders retreated to the
sea.
Till then that distant shore, its
peak din1ly visible only on clear
days, had been region cf mystery;
now they had landed upon it, had
tasted its dangers and delights.
"Let us return for more wealth"
the excited welconers urge.
'Nay brothers," reply the sailors.
t'The winds are evil and the waves
run high. We must make a bigger
raft and take more fighting men, for
yonder they have mighty warriors
to give us battle"
Contrast pirate pistol and cutlass,
hand-to-hand sea-fghting technique
with the World war Battle of Jut-
land, when armored giants hurled
tons of projectiles at each other with
lghtninglike rapidly over leagues
of intervening blue water.
Man Becomes Restless
Fighting on the water, perhaps,
had less to do with the development
of ships than did mans peacetime
pursuits, his restless urge always to
find and see new lands, and to gain
wealth by barter with faraway peo-
pie for salt, amber, and slaves.
One primitive craft, in use to this
day, is the Polynesian catamaran.
Anyone who has lived in the Philip
pines or cruised the waters of the
South Pacific know this outrigger
sailing canoe and its age-old use in
inter-island traffic.
Aboard this catamaran, long GEN.
turies ago, dusky adventurers from
Asiatic coasts, guided only by stars,
the flight of birds, or instinct, sailed
for countless watery miles out into
the Pacific. Hawaii, Easter island,
and New Zealand were all colonized
by these daring sailors. There is
some evidence that a few of them
even reached the coasts of Mexico
and South America.
Egypt Started IL
Though history records no famous
voyages made by Egyptian naviga-
tors, it was from early Egypt that
shipbuilding ideas spread to Phoe-
nicia, Greece, and later to Rome
even through the Red sea to the
Orient.
The Chinese Junk bears strong
resemblance to pictures of ancient
Egyptian craft, especially in the
shape of the hull. Although sea-
going ships grew up in the Mediter-
ranean, early Chinese used the COM
pass. Their iunks, trading between
Canton and the Persian gulf in the
Third century, had magnetic iron
needles; also, their junks used q
rudder mounted on the sternpost
Beyond the junk, however, Chinese
shipmakers progressed little. On
canals, rivers, and along coasts,
myriad junks and sampans continue
to haul much of China's colossal do.
mestic commerce.
Phoenicia, today, is a forgotten
land. Yet merchants of Tyre" cor.
nered the world trade of their day
They sent dried fruit and wine tt
the then remote British isles, anc
brought back tin and cloth. They
are even believed to have sailed
around Africa centuries before
Vasco da Cana.
Vikings, bold sailors in their day
ravaged the coasts of Gaul anc
Spain in their stout oaken vessels
centuries before Columbus was
born. Living on dried fish and such
little grain as they could carry, they
later explored the northwest Allan
tic; about 1000 A. D., Left Ericsson
voyaged to North America through
icy seas.
In each passing century, aftel
Egypt supplied a pattern for sea
going merchant craft, first the sea
farers of one nation. then of another
made Improvements. Columbus
flagship, for example, was a mod
ern' boat, compared with LeE'
open long ship. His crew had bet
ter sleeping Quarters. bigger wate
casks. more d~ina reoofe s0ffe