How did sailors find their way before maps and GPS?
Ocean Detectives
How did sailors find their way before maps and GPS?
Imagine you're standing on a wooden ship in the middle of the ocean. Water stretches in every direction, flat and endless. No road signs. No landmarks. No phone telling you "turn left in 500 feet." How did sailors a thousand years ago figure out where they were going?
The first trick was simple: stay close to the coast and watch the land. Sailors hugged the shoreline like kids holding the edge of a pool. See that mountain? That weird-shaped rock? Those cliffs? Boom—you know where you are. It's slow, but it works.
