Editing Ship (section)

===Prehistory and antiquity===
{{See also|Ships of ancient Rome}}

==== Asian developments ====
[[File:Atlas pittoresque pl 096.jpg|thumb|[[Fiji#Early settlement|Fijian]] voyaging [[outrigger boat]] with a [[crab claw sail]]]]
[[File:Borobudur ship.JPG|thumb|One of the sailing vessels depicted in [[Borobudur]] temple, c.&nbsp;8th century AD in [[Java]], [[Indonesia]]]]
The earliest attestations of ships in [[maritime transport]] in [[Mesopotamia]] are [[model ship]]s, which date back to the 4th millennium BC. In archaic texts in [[Uruk]], [[Sumer]], the ideogram for "ship" is attested, but in the inscriptions of the kings of [[Lagash]], ships were first mentioned in connection to [[maritime trade]] and [[naval warfare]] at around 2500–2350 BCE.{{Citation needed|date=June 2022|reason=These clay models are surely boats. The interpretation of texts needs an RS.}}

[[Austronesian peoples]] originated in what is now [[Taiwan]]. From here, they took part in the [[Austronesian Expansion]]. Their distinctive maritime technology was integral to this movement and included [[catamaran]]s and [[outrigger ship|outriggers]]. It has been suggested that they had sails some time before 2000 BCE.<ref name="Horridge 2006">{{cite book |last1=Horridge |first1=Adrian |editor1-last=Bellwood |editor1-first=Peter |title=The Austronesians : historical and comparative perspectives |date=2006 |location=Canberra, ACT |isbn=978-0731521326}}</ref>{{rp|144}} Their [[crab claw sail]]s enabled them to sail for vast distances in open ocean.  From Taiwan, they rapidly colonized the islands of [[Maritime Southeast Asia]], then sailed further onwards to [[Micronesia]], [[Island Melanesia]], [[Polynesia]], and [[Madagascar]], eventually colonizing a territory spanning half the globe.<ref name="Doran1974">{{Cite journal |last=Doran |first=Edwin Jr. |date=1974 |title=Outrigger Ages |url=http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document//Volume_83_1974/Volume_83%2C_No._2/Outrigger_ages%2C_by_Edwin_Doran_Jnr.%2C_p_130-140/p1 |journal=The Journal of the Polynesian Society |volume=83 |issue=2 |pages=130–140 |access-date=2019-09-29 |archive-date=2020-01-18 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200118071139/http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_83_1974/Volume_83,_No._2/Outrigger_ages,_by_Edwin_Doran_Jnr.,_p_130-140/p1 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Mahdi1999" />

Austronesian sails were made from woven leaves, usually from [[Pandanus|pandan]] plants.<ref name="Kirch2012" /><ref name="Gallaher2014" /> These were complemented by paddlers, who usually positioned themselves on platforms on the [[outrigger]]s in the larger boats.<ref name="Doran1974" /><ref name="Doran1981" /> Austronesian ships ranged in complexity from simple [[dugout canoe]]s with outriggers or lashed together to large edge-pegged plank-built boats built around a keel made from a dugout canoe. Their designs were unique, evolving from ancient rafts to the characteristic double-hulled, single-outrigger, and double-outrigger designs of Austronesian ships.<ref name="Mahdi1999" /><ref name="Doran1981" />

In the 2nd century AD, people from the [[Nusantara (archipelago)|Indonesian archipelago]] already made large ships measuring over 50 m long and standing 4–7 m out of the water. They could carry 600–1000 people and 250–1000 ton cargo. These ships were known as ''kunlun bo'' or ''[[K'un-lun po|k'unlun po]]'' (崑崙舶, lit. "ship of the [[Kunlun (mythology)|Kunlun]] people") by the Chinese, and ''kolandiaphonta'' by the Greeks. They had 4–7 masts and were able to sail against the wind due to the usage of [[tanja sail]]s. These ships may have reached as far as [[Ghana]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Phantom Voyagers: Evidence of Indonesian Settlement in Africa in Ancient Times|last=Dick-Read|first=Robert|publisher=Thurlton|year=2005}}</ref>{{Rp|41}}<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last=Manguin |first=Pierre-Yves |date=1993 |title=Trading Ships of the South China Sea. Shipbuilding Techniques and Their Role in the History of the Development of Asian Trade Networks |journal=Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient |pages=253–280}}</ref>{{Rp|262}}<ref name=":112">{{Cite journal |last=Christie |first=Anthony |date=1957 |title=An Obscure Passage from the "Periplus: ΚΟΛΑΝΔΙΟϕΩΝΤΑ ΤΑ ΜΕΓΙΣΤΑ" |journal=Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London |volume=19 |pages=345–353 |doi=10.1017/S0041977X00133105 |s2cid=162840685 }}</ref>{{Rp|347}} In the 11th century, a new type of ship called [[Djong (ship)|djong]] or jong was recorded in [[Java]] and [[Bali]].<ref>{{Cite journal |date=2008 |editor-last=Hauser-Schäublin |editor-first=Brigitta |editor2-last=Ardika |editor2-first=I Wayan |title=Burials, Texts and Rituals: Ethnoarchaeological Investigations in North Bali, Indonesia |journal=Göttinger Beiträge zur Ethnologie |doi=10.17875/gup2008-416 |isbn=978-3-940344-12-0 |issn=2512-6814|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|222, 230, 267}}<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Jákl |first=Jiří |date=2020 |title=The Sea and Seacoast in Old Javanese Court Poetry: Fishermen, Ports, Ships, and Shipwrecks in the Literary Imagination |journal=Archipel |volume=100 |issue=100 |pages=69–90 |doi=10.4000/archipel.2078 |s2cid=229391249 |issn=0044-8613|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{rp|82}} This type of ship was built using wooden dowels and treenails, unlike the ''kunlun bo'' which used vegetal fibres for lashings.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Manguin |first=Pierre-Yves |year=2021 |title=The assembly of hulls in Southeast Asian shipbuilding traditions: from lashings to treenails |journal=Archaeonautica |volume=21 |issue=21 |pages=137–140 |doi=10.4000/archaeonautica.2397 |s2cid=251869471 |issn=0154-1854|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{Rp|138}}

In China, miniature models of ships that feature steering oars have been dated to the [[Warring States period]] (c.&nbsp;475–221 BC).<ref name="tom 1989 103 104" /> By the [[Han dynasty]], a well kept naval fleet was an integral part of the military. Centre-line rudders, mounted at the stern, started to appear on Chinese ship models starting in the 1st century AD.{{efn|The Chinese rudder has some substantial differences from the [[pintle]] and gudgeon-hung rudder that was adopted from Northern Europe into the Mediterranean some time after the middle of the 12th century. Chinese ships of this time did not even have a stern post on which to mount a rudder. Elsewhere, Arab shipwrights used a stern-post mounted rudder which would have been known to Mediterranean mariners before their adoption of the pintle and gudgeon system, but the Arab system used rope lashings between the sternpost and the rudder, not the metal of the Northern European system. The Arab system had no significant adoption in the Mediterranean and had the disadvantage of needing frequent inspection.<ref name="Mott 1997">{{cite book |last1=Mott |first1=Lawrence V. |title=The development of the rudder: a technological tale |date=1997 |publisher=Texas A&M university press |location=College Station |isbn=0890967237}}</ref>{{rp|7, 120-125}}}}<ref name="tom 1989 103 104" /> However, these early Chinese ships were fluvial (riverine), and were not seaworthy.<ref name="Pham2">{{cite book |last1=Pham |first1=Charlotte Minh-Hà L. |url=https://www.academia.edu/10065854 |title=Training Manual for the UNESCO Foundation Course on the Protection and Management of Underwater Cultural Heritage in Asia and the Pacific |date=2012 |publisher=UNESCO Bangkok, Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education |isbn=978-92-9223-414-0 |location=Bangkok |chapter=Unit 14: Asian Shipbuilding (Training Manual for the UNESCO Foundation Course on the Protection and Management of the Underwater Cultural Heritage)}}</ref>{{rp|20}}<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Maguin|first=Pierre-Yves|date=September 1980|title=The Southeast Asian Ship: An Historical Approach|journal=Journal of Southeast Asian Studies|volume=11|issue=2|pages=266–276|doi=10.1017/S002246340000446X|jstor=20070359|s2cid=162220129 }}</ref> The Chinese only acquired sea-going ship technologies in the 10th-century AD [[Song dynasty]] after contact with Southeast Asian ''k'un-lun po'' trading ships, leading to the development of the [[junk (ship)|junks]].<ref name="Johnstone 1980" /><ref name="Pham2" />{{rp|20–21}}

==== Mediterranean developments ====
[[File:Maler der Grabkammer des Menna 013.jpg|thumb|Egyptian sailing ship, c.&nbsp;1422–1411 BC]]
[[File:Phoenician ship.jpg|thumb|A [[Ancient Rome|Roman]] ship carved on the face of the [[Ship sarcophagus|"Ship Sarcophagus"]], c.&nbsp;2nd century AD]]

The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in Egypt during the 4th millennium BCE<ref name="Britannica - History of ships"/> The [[Ancient Greece|Greek]] [[historian]] and [[geographer]] [[Agatharchides]] had documented ship-faring among the early [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptians]]:  ''"During the prosperous period of the [[Old Kingdom]], between the [[30th century BC|30th]] and [[25th century BC|25th centuries BC]], the [[Nile River|river]]-routes were kept in order, and [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] ships sailed the [[Red Sea]] as far as the [[myrrh]]-country."''<ref>{{Cite book |author=[[Agatharchides]] |others=in [[Wilfred Harvey Schoff]] (Secretary of the [[Philadelphia Civic Center|Commercial Museum of Philadelphia]]) with a foreword by W.P. Wilson, Sc. Director, [[University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology|The Philadelphia Museums]]. |title=[[Periplus of the Erythraean Sea]]: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century, Translated from the Greek and Annotated |publisher=Longmans, Green, and Co. |year=1912 |location=New York |pages=50; 57 (for quote)}}</ref> [[Sneferu]]'s ancient cedar wood ship [[Praise of the Two Lands (ship)|Praise of the Two Lands]] is the first reference recorded (2613 BC) to a ship being referred to by name.<ref>Anzovin, item # 5393, p. 385 ''Reference to a ship with a name appears in an inscription of 2613 BC that recounts the shipbuilding achievements of the fourth-dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Sneferu. He was recorded as the builder of a cedarwood vessel called "Praise of the Two Lands."''</ref>

The [[ancient Egypt]]ians were perfectly at ease building sailboats. A remarkable example of their [[shipbuilding]] skills was the [[Khufu ship]], a vessel {{convert|143|ft|m}} in length entombed at the foot of the [[Great Pyramid of Giza]] around 2500 BC and found intact in 1954.

The oldest discovered sea faring hulled boat is the [[Late Bronze Age]] [[Uluburun]] shipwreck off the coast of Turkey, dating back to 1300 BC.<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Uluburun shipwreck: an overview |journal=International Journal of Nautical Archaeology |volume=27|issue=3|page=188 |first = Cemal |last = Pulak |year=1998 |doi=10.1111/j.1095-9270.1998.tb00803.x}}</ref>

By 1200 B.C., the [[Phoenicia]]ns were building large merchant ships. In world maritime history, declares Richard Woodman, they are recognized as "the first true seafarers, founding the art of pilotage, [[cabotage]], and navigation" and the architects of "the first true ship, built of planks, capable of carrying a deadweight cargo and being sailed and steered."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Woodman |first=Richard |title=The History of the Ship |publisher=Lyons Press |year=1987 |location=New York |pages=16 |quote=Cabotage refers to navigation along the coastline}}</ref>