Researched
Sailing Ship
Sails use the wind to move over water - trade and travel become faster and cheaper than on land.
Open in the interactive tree →Egyptian depictions show sailing boats on the Nile as early as the late 4th millennium BC; Polynesians later sailed thousands of kilometres of open Pacific. A ship carries many times more per person than a cart, and waterways were the highways of trade for millennia. From galleys and cogs the ocean-going sailing ship developed.
Prerequisites
- Stone Tools~3.3 million years ago
- Cordage & Weaving~30,000 years agoSails and rigging depend on rope and woven cloth
Unlocks
- Compass~1100
- Caravel & Circumnavigation~1450
- Steamship1807
More in Transport & Mobility · Prehistory
- Wheel~3500 BC