Preceden

History of Ships and Boats

Prehistory and Ancient Times

Mesopotamia sailors invent sails.

5000 BCE - 3000 BCE

Greeks build giant warships, including biremes and triremes.

1500 BCE - 27 BCE

Archimedes figures out the science of floatation.

300 BCE

Middle Ages

Vikings invent clinker building.

300

Most large ships are wooden-built and sail powered, and include cogs, carracks, galleys, and galleons.

1400 - 1600

Great Voyages by Christophor Columbus (1451-1506), Vasco da Gama (1460-1524), Ferdinand Magellan (1480-1521), and other pioneer ocean exploration and circumnavigation.

1451 - 1524

The Great Age of Shipping

Robert Fulton sets a record for traveling from New York City to Albany with a steamboat called Clermont.

1807

Great Western, a giant steam-powered ship called built by Isambard Kingdom Brunel becomes the first iron boat to cross the Atlantic.

1837

Sir Charles Parsons invents a highly efficient steam engine called the steam turbine.

1884

Modern Ships

Marine gas turbine engines are used for the first time.

1943

US Navy launches first nuclear-powered submarine, USS Nautilus

1955

US Navy launches an experimental, radar-invisible stealth boat called the Sea Shadow, based on a SWATH design.

1993