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The Age of Exploration: Maritime Innovations
How the caravel, compass, astrolabe, portolan charts and latitude sailing made the long ocean voyages of the 1400s and 1500s possible.
Origins and Exploration
Exploration and Empire
Ships of discovery, piracy, survey and the industrial age.
Exploring the History of the Galleon
How the galleon's hull and guns suited Spain's convoy system, and how the annual treasure fleets carried American silver across the Atlantic.
The Age of Exploration: A Look at the Boats that Changed the World
The caravel, carrack and nao compared as working ships of the Portuguese and Spanish voyages: their sizes, rigs, strengths and the jobs each was used for.
The Impact of the HMS Beagle on Maritime History
HMS Beagle was a Royal Navy survey brig whose three voyages between 1826 and 1843 produced careful charts, with the 1831-36 Darwin voyage the best known.
The Impact of the Industrial Revolution on Shipbuilding
How iron and steel hulls, machine tools, standardised parts and larger yards changed shipbuilding in the 1800s and ended the dominance of wood.
The Impact of the Steamship on Maritime History
How steam power, iron hulls and screw propellers reshaped sailing schedules, emigration, trade routes and naval power during the nineteenth century.
The Rise and Fall of the Galleon
The galleon's story from sixteenth-century dominance to its replacement by purpose-built warships, frigates and specialised merchant ships.
The Rise and Fall of the Pirate Ship
What ships Atlantic pirates really used, from Caribbean sloops to captured merchantmen, how myth differs from record, and why the golden age faded.
Related topics
More in origins and exploration
Ancient Shipbuilding How early peoples built hulls and rigs. Ancient Trade and Voyages Cargoes and expeditions of the earliest maritime civilizations. Polar and Scientific Voyages Ships sent to the ice and to the unmapped deep. Trading Companies and Sea Routes Chartered companies and the routes that linked continents.