NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Zheng He steered by the stars?
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2002 Nov 25, 12:16 +1100
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2002 Nov 25, 12:16 +1100
Let us be sceptical by all means, but also remember that not so long ago Christopher Columbus was credited with 'discovering' the Americas. I imagine that most people would accept now that the Vikings established a settlement that has been excavated at l'Anse Meadow in the northeast of North America. Also, possibly, Irish monks in leather-bound boats during the first millenium made similar trips - they certainly said they did at the time. They sailed via Iceland and Greenland, making landfall at a place that was thickly wooded - where else could it be? In any case what interests me is the navigational techniques and instruments early explorers may have developed independently of the European models whose descendants we have inherited. If anyone has access to 'definitive' histories or books on ancient Chinese technologies it seems I would not be the only person to be interested in what may be found there.
