Navigation

(nav-e-ga shun.) [ L. navigatio.] The art or science by which, in open seas, ships are conducted from port to port. This is effected by the use of charts, and by keeping a journal of the courses from hour to hour, and of the distance in each, by means of the log line; also by observations on the sun, moon, and stars. Imperfect as were the means and knowledge of the ancients in this noble art, yet the Cart hag in i ans, who super added the highest commercial enterprise to the greatest skill which had yet been attained, achieved the most brilliant results. They made the whole of the old world tributary to their city. Not contented with exploring every nook and corner of the Mediterranean, they left behind the limits which had bounded the excursions of their predece ors, visited the Atlantic coasts of Europe, the British Isles, and, pursuing the grand idea which afterwards led the Portuguese to India,discovered a vast extent of the W.coast of Africa. The art of N. gained nothing for a long period after the fall of Carthage, and the invasion of the northern barbarians effectually extinguished the few gleams of science which had survived her destruction. Everything remained stationary for centuries, until the discovery of the mariner's compa , early in the 15th cent., and that of the variation of the compa by Columbus, in 1492. It would be tedious to enumerate the succe ive improvements by which the science of N. has been brought to its present high state of perfection, inasmuch as the particulars of each and every important feature in this respect receives mention under their various heads in other parts of this work. [s. 633]