Picture of a chart, compass, calipers and other tools for navigation from the Water Encyclopedia
http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Mi-Oc/Navigation-at-Sea-History-of.html

As a sailor in the Navy I worked as an engineer in what they call the pit, the area of the ship where the turbines and steam plant were.  We provided the power to the ship but often times didn’t have any insight as to where we were going.  After getting off of watch in the middle of the night I would often wonder outside, to the smoke deck and look up at the stars and unwind after standing watch.  Even with GPS, Radar and whatever else the navigators had I was still amazed that they could figure out where we were and where we were going with no landmarks or road signs to guide them.

As I’ve moved forward in this course, the History of Science, I have become more and more interested in how sailors of old navigated in the ancient world.  I have learned quite a bit about how they got around and continue to find myself amazed at how advanced ancient mariners were.  I think that others will find this topic interesting because it is not something that we think about everyday, yet the technology that mariners developed to travel the seas evolved into things we use everyday including simple compasses to GPS in our cars.

I included three episodes in my web project one from each of the following three time periods, ancient medieval and early modern science.  The web episode dedicated to ancient science is an episode on the The Lighthouse of Alexandria.  I used a Primary source:

Thayer, Bill. "Strabo Geography." LacusCurtius. 28 May 2008. University Of Chicago. 22 Sep 2008 <http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Strabo/17A1*.html

This is a Translation of of Strabo’s original work that speaks of the dedication of the lighthouse of Alexandria.  The lighthouse served as an aid to navigation in ancient times

The second Episode that I included in this web Project covers medieval times and will focus on the use of the Magnetic Compass compass for maritime navigation.  For a primary source I used Pingzhou Table Talks (Zhu Yu, Pingzhou Table Talks.  1117, China) which contains the first mention of a compass being used for navigation.  I am also including this episode because it focuses outside of western cultures and I think it will provide some variety to the project.  I had to find a direct translation of this writing and found one 

For a secondary source I  used a web page written by Susan Silverman from the Smith College History of Science Museum of Ancient Inventions.  Ms. Silverman appears to have a wealth of information about the subject and appears on a website that seems to have some authority.  Based on these observations I think that this secondary source meets requirements 1, 2 and 3

The final episode in my web Project is about the use of a Chip Log to measure the speed of a ship in early modern times.  The primary source that I leaned on for this episode was Regiment for the Sea (Bourne, William. Regiment for the Sea. 1. London: By [Henry Bynneman for] Thomas Hacket, and are to be solde at his shop in the Royall Exchaunge, at the signe of the Greene Dragon, 1574.) This source documents the use of a chip log.  The chip log enabled navigators to judge their speed. My secondary source is the web document by Mordica.  It is a signed work published on a reputable historical website by a named author.  The author posses an obvious knowledge of the subject matter and illustrates this by providing detailed instructions on the construction of a working chip log.  

Mordica, Allen. "The Speed Log --History, Construction and Use." The Navy and Marine Living History Association. NMLHA. 1 Dec 2008 <http://www.navyandmarine.org/planspatterns/speedlog.htm>.

For this web project I used a narrative and tell the story of a sailor forced to travel on ships for eternity.  He relayed the story about each invention tying together each episode by explaining how each technology made his life as a sailor easier.