Navigators toolchest- Before charts

Navigators toolchest- Before charts

A map of the persian gulfBackground

Of all the tools the navigator uses the chart is his most used one and where all the position-finding data is deposited. It is the tool that describes the historic and current position of the ship.

So how did the sea chart or chart as it is called come about?

Before charts-the oral traditions

Seafarers crossed the oceans long before there were charts. The Vikings, the Pacific Islanders and the Arabs did not have charts, yet they managed to cross oceans. In the case of the Pacific Islanders, vast distances.

Essentially, they were tuned in to their maritime environment.

They were aware of prevailing winds, swells, waves. They could detect how close they were to shore by clouds on the horizon, by birds appearing around the ship. They could interpret the colour of the sea as an indicator of water depth or ocean current. Their senses were tuned to changes in wind direction and strength, so important on frail ships with limited manoeuvrability. The sound and sight of breaking waves in an otherwise regular sea warned of danger.

They were with nature and they used that knowledge to navigate.

In each case there were special conditions that affected their voyages.

The Vikings westward voyages were affected by prevailing south westerly winds that were severe in winter. Therefore, it was normal to start a voyage in the summer, overwintering in Iceland and continuing to Greenland the next summer.

The Arabs had the seasonal monsoons from the southwest and the northeast that affected their trading destinations over a year.

The Pacific islanders ventured out in the springtime or early summer to avoid the cyclone season in the southern hemisphere.

In the case of the Vikings, they were very experienced seaman crossing some of the most hostile seas in the northern hemisphere.[1]

They often missed their destination and lost ships but continued to explore the northern seas.[2]

They then passed on that knowledge to other seafarers as part of an oral tradition.

There was a distinct hierarchy of command on board ship.

“The styrimaðr had knowledge of navigation – he was able to determine the ship's distance, course and speed, and sail according to the signs provided by nature. If the styrimaðr lacked information for a voyage, or if he had to navigate in foreign waters, he hired a pilot with local knowledge who navigated and showed him the way in return for payment.

The styrimaðr had access to a kind of navigation council: the mót, which he could consult on sailing matters, such as large changes in course or in case of disciplinary punishment of the crew.”[3]

A couple of centuries after the voyages to Greenland, the voyages were recorded in the Greenland saga[4] and the saga of Erik the Red. Although detail of the lands discovered and settled is there, there is less information on the voyages.         

Early navigational tools

In addition to their intimate knowledge of their watery environment and past on information from other navigators they were knowledgeable about the sun and stars and could use them to determine direction and latitude. The Pole star and the Sun were vital celestial objects that these sailors knew. The pole star gave them a northerly direction in the northern hemisphere and when the sun reached its highest point in the sky it was either south or north depending which half of the globe you were navigating in.


The Pacific islanders were also experienced navigators that sailed between the Pacific islands only using their mental maps of the ocean and its swells.[5] In the Marshal islands they trained their mental maps with rudimentary diagrams of the islands and swells called stick charts.[6] Shell indicated islands and strands of coconut fibre represented the directions of the prevalent swells. The tradition of ocean navigation was passed down from generation to generation. Mau Piailug was one of these experienced sailors from the Caroline islands.[7]

They also had strict rank system with Captain and master navigator in charge of the canoe.[8]


The navigation of the Arab dhow also utilised simple tools. The navigator used a simple rectangular piece of wood with a string attached in its centre. It was called a kamal.[9]


The string had knots in it representing known angles of the Pole star above the horizon. Holding the string between your teeth you aligned the lower edge of the kamal with the horizon and then extended or retracted the kamal until the upper edge aligned with star. The knot closest to your teeth represented the altitude of the star, meaning latitude with the Pole star.

It is best used in lower latitudes.

They also had a master navigator called a “nakhuda”[10] who was responsible for navigation and administration, effectively the captain of the dhow.



[11]

The Vikings in higher northern latitudes also used celestial objects, particularly the sun to determine their latitude. Discovery of part of a wooden disk with notches on its perimeter in Greenland[12] led to much research that finally determined it was a “sun compass” based on observations of the suns shadow of a stick, somewhat like a sun dial. On a sunny day they could accurately measure latitude. However the sun was not always clearly visible but on hazy days they used the properties of a crystal to find the suns bearing. This was calcite crystal found in Iceland which when pointed towards the sun provides two images which through rotation of the crystal polarise into a single image indicating the suns direction.[13] Evidence of such a navigational instrument was confirmed by the discovery of one in a shipwreck from the late 1500’s.[14]

Navigating without charts continued until the 1400’s when the Chinese began to explore westward.

We will explore the emergence of sea charts in another article.

References

BBC News. ‘“Viking Sunstone” Found in Shipwreck’. Europe. 6 March 2013. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21693140.

‘Did Traditional Arab Dhows Have a Captain - Google-Søk’. Accessed 16 February 2026. https://www.google.com/search?q=did+traditional+arab+dhows+haven66B9zG8JFVLtPSE

Horte, Louise Kæmpe Henriksen-red:Marianne Juelsgård. ‘Styrimaðr’. Accessed 8 February 2026. https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/knowledge-of-sailing/the-ships-crew/crewmembers-in-the-viking-age/styrimadr.

‘Portolan Chart | Maritime Navigation, Nautical Maps, Cartography | Britannica’. Accessed 8 February 2026. https://www.britannica.com/technology/portolan-chart.

Sun Compasses | Viking Archaeology. n.d. Accessed 8 March 2026. http://viking.archeurope.com/ships/navigation/sun-compasses/.

‘The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings by John Haywood: 9780140513288 | PenguinRandomHouse.Com: Books’. PenguinRandomhouse.Com, n.d. Accessed 8 February 2026. https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/272338/the-penguin-historical-atlas-of-the-vikings-by-john-haywood/.

‘Viking Sun Stone - Google Search’. Accessed 8 March 2026. https://www.google.com/search?q=viking+sun+stone&sca_esv=629d06c47799

 

 

 

 


[1] ‘The Penguin Historical Atlas of the Vikings by John Haywood: 9780140513288 | PenguinRandomHouse.Com: Books’, PenguinRandomhouse.Com, n.d., accessed 8 February 2026, https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/272338/the-penguin-historical-atlas-of-the-vikings-by-john-haywood/.

[2] ‘Bjarni Herjólfsson’, Wikipedia, 22 November 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Bjarni_Herj%C3%B3lfsson&oldid=1323627995.

[3] Louise Kæmpe Henriksen-red:Marianne Juelsgård Horte, ‘Styrimaðr’, accessed 8 February 2026, https://www.vikingeskibsmuseet.dk/en/professions/education/knowledge-of-sailing/the-ships-crew/crewmembers-in-the-viking-age/styrimadr.

[4] Wikipedia, ‘Bjarni Herjólfsson’.

[5] ‘We, the Navigators’, Wikipedia, 8 October 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=We,_the_Navigators&oldid=1315794897.

[6] ‘Marshall Islands stick chart’, Wikipedia, 31 December 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Marshall_Islands_stick_chart&oldid=1330440298.

[7] ‘Mau Piailug’, Wikipedia, 14 November 2025, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Mau_Piailug&oldid=1322055655.

[8]

[9]

[10] ‘Did Traditional Arab Dhows Have a Captain - Google-Søk’, accessed 16 February 2026, https://www.google.com/search?q=did+traditional+arab+dhows+have+a+captain&sca_.

[11] Sun Compasses | Viking Archaeology, n.d., accessed 8 March 2026, http://viking.archeurope.com/ships/navigation/sun-compasses/.

[12] Sun Compasses | Viking Archaeology.

[13] ‘Viking Sun Stone - Google Search’, accessed 8 March 2026, https://www.google.com/search?q=viking+sun+stone&sca_esv=629d06c477996cae&hl

[14] ‘“Viking Sunstone” Found in Shipwreck’, Europe, BBC News, 6 March 2013, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-21693140.


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