The oceans have been a friend and foe of humans throughout history. It protected some civilizations from being invaded, while giving other civilizations the bounty of food and ease of transportation. Sailors have always been the adventurers, charting new courses to distant lands. They were half explorers and half crazy. While most land people felt ships could fall off the side of a flat world, most sailors knew that the oceans were endless. They could visually see there was a curve to our Earth as they were approaching land.

The early people who used the oceans had to become one with the oceans and the sky. Their very life depended on reading the sky in the day and night, to navigate to safety. They also needed to read the signals from the oceans that would warn them of upcoming storms or calm. The oceans were mysterious if you didn’t interpret its signals correctly.

Early Roman ship