The Story of Sailing and Sail Power

The fascinating history of sailing will provide an ideal embarkation point for The Spice Islands Voyage on the Web. By utilising Tim Severin's previous maritime exploits the teacher will introduce his/her class to the story of sailing and sailors. Project work should be done where groups focus on some of the more important aspects of sailing - e.g. sail power, navigation, safety at sea, the crewing of vessels and so on. This preparation will adequately equip the students for their communications with the Alfred Wallace. Take time to become familiar with nautical expressions as they will appear again and again in the coming months. Good preparation is essential to the success of a voyage - after all, it has taken Tim Severin over three years of painstaking work to research and launch The Spice Islands Voyage.

The following list contains suggested areas of examination which you may wish to include in your background explorations

The First Boats

Water transportation has enabled humans to travel, explore and trade for thousands of years. The peoples of ancient tribes found that travelling by water made sense - they could get places easily and quickly and large loads could be moved without difficulty. It is likely that hollowed-out tree trunks, rafts and coracles were the first vessels used in those distant times. Sea-going boats were probably not developed until around 3000 B.C. when the river peoples of Egypt and southern Iraq built reed boats.

Research Topics

  1. Find out about Thor Heyerdahl's extraordinary voyages aboard the Ra and Tigris. What did he set out to achieve? What type of vessels were the Ra and Tigris?
  2. The Spice Islands Voyage is Tim Severin's sixth maritime adventure. Write a brief account of perhaps his most famous expedition - what was his objective in sailing a tiny leather boat across the wild Atlantic? Did he succeed? Use your atlas to retrace the route of The Brendan Voyage.
  3. Make a timeline of maritime history using the following headings:
  4. Tim Severin will retrace Alfred Wallace's voyage around the Moluccas in a prau. Use your school or local library to create a profile of this traditional Indonesian vessel.
  5. Split your class into groups and draw up lists of ten essential items which you think would be needed aboard the Alfred Wallace. Remember there is little storage space and most of these items must be important to the vessel's safe passage. What are the requirements common to each list? What items missing from your list appear on other lists?

Navigation

Navigation is the way in which ships find out where they are at sea. This enables the crew to decide which direction to take in order to safely arrive at their destination. Long ago sailors took readings from the position of the sun and stars to determine where they were on the seas. Modern navigation is an exact science which uses computers and satellite equipment to work out a ship's latitude and longitude. This may seem a great advance from the skills employed by long-dead mariners but the basic principles are still the same. The headings listed below will aid you in researching a brief history of navigation.

Research Topics

  1. The History of Navigation
  2. Use a large scale map of Indonesia to keep track of Tim Severin's regular reports from the Moluccas. Take careful note of his reported positions and track his progress on your map. You can note his rate of progress and this will help you in preparing questions for later transmission to Tim and his crew.
  3. Compile a list of the places Tim makes a landfall and note their latitudes and longitudes.
  4. Imagine you have arrived at an unexplored island. It is uncharted so it is your responsibility to create a usable map. Invent your own lines of latitude and longitude and mark them on your new chart. Ask your classmates to find certain landmarks on the map by using your newly-invented system of navigation.

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