Moving Across the Water

Ships and boats are by far the most common intermediary technologies humans have used to understand and work on the ocean, serving as envirotechnical interfaces that allow terrestrial humans to spend longer periods of time within (mediated) marine environments. Travel across the ocean, whether for shorter distances in coastal trade and fishing, or longer distances on voyages of discovery and global trade, required some kind of vessel adapted to the conditions they would encounter. The differences between sailing a Portuguese caravel and a Polynesian canoe are reflected not just in the shape of the boats but in the experiences that sailors had within them, and therefore the ways they thought about and managed the marine environment. This chapter discusses the major types of vessels that were used around the world in the early modern era, including Arctic kayaks, Caribbean canaoa, Indian Ocean dhows, Southeast Asian jong, and various East Asian and European sailing ships, focusing on how different designs interacted with particular marine environments.