Soule Gardner. Men Who Dared the Sea. The Ocean Adventures of the Ancient Mariners

New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1976. — 262 p. — ISBN: 0-690-01095-8.Today's ocean explorers are indebted to the ancient mariners and early ocean scientists. Just how indebted is what veteran science writer Gardner Soule tells in this fascinating study. After writing many books about recent scientific discoveries in oceanography, he now turns to the very beginnings, back to the first prehistoric man who drifted down a river on a log. His story is of man's journey toward today's oceanography, of those first sailors, many of them anonymous, who left few records and are almost never mentioned in history books unless they commanded a fleet in battlesailors of the Stone and Bronze ages, in the ships of the Egyptians, Babylonians, Greeks, Phoenicians, Northern Europeans, and Romans. From the existing historical and archeological records, he tells why they went to sea, how they navigated, what their ships were like, and what they learned that has benefitted all mankind.
Early man's adventures on the seas are a series of amazing accomplishments. Back in the Stone Age men with stone axes cut down an oak tree whose trunk must have been at least 18 feet around and fashioned a dugout 48 feet long which could carry them across the sea. Around 4500 B.C, men already could make repeated dives to the bottom of the sea, as mother-of-pearl ornaments dating to that period prove. Practicing complicated marine chemistry around 900 B.C., the Phoenicians made a purple dye from three sea snails which became one of the most costly commodities of the ancient world. In the third century B.C. it is recorded that the largest rowed ship of all was built, a vessel 420 feet long requiring 4,000 oarsmen. In Roman days large freighters carried sightseers from Athens to Asia Minor in just over a week's time, and one of the principal sights for these early tourists was the pyramids.
Pulling together and putting into time sequence such accomplishments as these, Gardner Soule tells a thrilling story about the first men who went to sea, who explored it, and who laid the basis for our modern oceanography.Foreword: Back to the Very First Beginning.
Somewhere, Some Time: A Man on a Log.
Far Away, Long Ago: Man, the Sun, and the Stars.
Europe 10,000 Years Back: Men Go Fishing.
North Europe, Stone Age: Men on the Sea in Hollow Logs.
After Seeds Are Planted: Men Ship Their Food Crops.
Ancient Europe and Egypt: Wind in the Sails.
The Mideast, 6000 B.C.: Ships Carry Copper.
The Mediterranean, 3500 B.C.: Men Sail Along the Coast.
Place and Date Unknown: The First Out of Sight of Land.
After 2000 B.C.: On His Way.
About 1500 B.C.: Voyage to an Unknown Shore.
About 1500 B.C. Incidental Cargo.
The Ancient World, 1500-930 B.C.: Some Surprising Achievements.
900 B.C.? Sailors' Tales.
900-600 B.C.: Progress in Science.
600 Years Before Christ: All the Way Around Africa.
Greece, 500s B.C.: Eyes on the Stars, the Earth, and Man.
The Atlantic, 510 and 470 B.C.: South and North from Gibraltar.
The Mediterranean, 400s B.C.: Men Lower a Line Overboard.
Carthage, After 480 B.C.: Queen City of the Sea.
About 357 B.C.: Plato Talks About Atlantis.
Mytilene, Lesbos, 300s B.C.: Aristotle Looks at Life in the Sea.
From Macedon, After 336 B.C.: An Army Explores.
To the Arctic, 330 Years B.C.: Ultima Thule.
Around 300 B.C.: Drifting Bottles, Voyages to India.
Alexandria, About 280 B.C.: A Light on the Shore.
The Mediterranean, 200s B.C.: Travelers on the Sea.
Alexandria, 200s B.C.: A Man Measures the Earth.
222-51 B.C.: Incredible Rowboats, Unknown Continents.
Sea of Sardinia, 100 B.C.: How Deep Is the Ocean?
Roman Empire, 63 B.C.-21 A.D.: A Man of Christ's Time.
First Century A.D.: Roman Ships and Sailors.
Italy, 79 A.D. A Man Watches a Volcano.
Late First Century A.D.: A Voyage to India.
Alexandria, 150 A.D.: Ptolemy and His Geography.
150-500 A.D.: As Rome Fades, Men Sail On—and On.
Postscript: What Came After.