Having found sufficient cargo, negotiated freight rates, signed the charter-party with, if relevant, the shipowner's authorisation, recruited a crew, fitted-out and victualled the ship, obtained up-to-date information about the risks of piracy and made his passage plan, the shipmaster was ready to put to sea. How he found his way to his destination is the subject of this chapter.

Direct navigation

‘L'art & science tressubtillez & quasi divine du noble mestier de la mer’ has been described as the ‘haven-finding art’; it might also be described as the ‘land-avoiding art’ since any undesired contact with land could be fatal. Until navigational instruments became generally available, shipmasters followed the classical advice ‘littus ama; altum alii teneant’ (‘love the shore; let others go to the deep’) – holding a safe distance off, but always within sight of land, except for short off-shore passages preferably sailed in daylight. Shipmasters in the fourteenth century, in the absence of instrumentation, had only direct observational methods to know the time, their position and course, and the distance and direction to their next destination. Late fourteenth-century improvements in ship design made longer and safer voyages possible but there was no certainty of a safe return, nor of repeat visits, until the introduction of magnetic compasses in the second half of the century. Although astronomers ashore had long been able to take accurate astral sights and calculate both latitude and longtiude, the former was not used ar sea until the second half of the fifteenth century, and the latter not until three centuries later.