Chapter 1075 - This... How could this be?!!
~Vrrrrrrrrrruuuuuu~~
The sh.i.p.s were locked and loaded, as they sailed away from Baymard's shores, going towards a direction it never once ventured.
And even though it was winter, everyone's emotions were as high as could be.
The taste of adventure and the known was somewhat scary, but more than anything else... EXCITING!
Thanks to the merchants who had visited either Veinitta before or had even gone as far as Tenola, they were given maps of how to reach those territories beyond.
But, one shouldn't sleep on these Medieval navigators.
Sure... They didn't have the entire global field mapped out, nor did they understand latitudes or longitude, their ability to easily and know where they were going wasn't guesswork.
They could even venture out into new open waters and come back without getting lost, meaning they had mad skills!
Up first, they used the motion of the stars to get through.
Firstly, one should never forget that the world itself was rotating ever so slowly... even though these people didn't know that.
Likewise, stars typically moved across the sky ever so slowly from east to west.
But, as time went on, these sailors realized that there was one star that didn't move no matter what... (Which was the north star, A.K.A Polaris).
And around the North star were always a formation of dots in the shape of a cooking pot, which they called Pot (but back on earth, it was called the big dipper or plough.)
This Pot always rotated around in an anti-clockwise manner around the north star, sometimes appearing on the side, above or below the fixed north star.
But no matter what, its relationship or distance to the north star never changes, and it will always point the way to the North star.
So even though they didn't have the magnetic compasses that always north (using this same principle), they still found it easy to know where North was.
This was basic, easy, everyday knowledge to these medieval people.
If one wanted to be a sailor, a merchant, guards sometimes going out on battle and even a Monarch... And didn't know this basic information, then they were idiots to people in this era.
They didn't have to know too in-depth like the astrologists and all the rest who keenly studied them... but when it came to the North star, information like this could save their lives when shipwrecked.
.
This again showed why astrologists were highly favoured.
People had studied this for millenniums and knew the Pot's positions, for every season and every day of the year.
That was why people desperately studied the sky above... Including the moon's positioning too.
Of course, this went without saying that the sun and clouds were deeply studied for navigation during the day too.
But the stars, moon, sun, and general weather, weren't all that these sailors used to map things out.
They also used the position of certain wildlife species and even the sizes of waves to find the path from one region to another.
That's right.
They also studied wave patterns and knew which regions were tallest and which weren't.
It's not for nothing that some sea regions had been marked as Shipyard graves or given weird names too.
The waves there could destroy sh.i.p.s during spring, winter and sometimes fall.
So people mostly stayed away from those regions.
As for how they used birds, that was easier.
First up, one should know that many sh.i.p.s in this time period had caged birds stored away.
The birds were similar to Ravens but a little bigger and had silver wings that contrasted their black bodies.
They were a bit faster in speed when compared to Ravens and were called Waikens instead.
When they estimated that land should be near, or felt that there were maybe possibly neighbouring sh.i.p.s hidden far away, they would release one of the birds.
And if it circled their boat without purpose, then there was no other land or shops around for it to finally land back on.
But if it took off in a certain direction, then they got their answer.
It could be land, or... An enemy fleet.
Also, if foreign birds or strange wildlife landed on their sh.i.p.s, then they were definitely close to land!
.
Looking at the many maps before him, Landon couldn't help marvelling at the people of this era.
Sigh... Sometimes he wondered if modern people were just plain stupid or lazy.
Everyone here knew the basics of these things as if they were nothing.
But if he pulled anyone aside back in modern times, asking them about these, they would remain clueless.
It was truly fascinating how maps in this period were done.
When one mentioned a map, they would think of just one piece of paper or chart.
The first chart did draw out depictions of where land should be.
But, rather than having the blue ocean waters, what was shown were tiny dots in a dark background.
So this map would show them the way through the night sky? As well as the moon's positioning?
Awesome!
They even showed that around a certain period of days, if one were to look up in the sky, they should see several star formations too... Like the kneeling soldier or the famous winged angel.
That's right.
Constellations like Orion, a hunter shaped by a cl.u.s.ter of stars, and many other installations, come out during specific times throughout the year.
This particular Orion constellation is visible in the evening sky from January to March, in the winter hemisphere... As well as in summer in the Southern hemisphere.
Only by thoroughly studying things can one know all this.
And that's why without satellites, latitudes or longitude, these people's maps couldn't just be one piece of paper.
.
Landon flipped the next page of the massive Map booklet to see the depiction of the sun's positioning and cloud formations throughout his travels.
There was another map showing wave patterns too.
Sigh... Who can honestly say medieval people were stupid?
Suddenly, Landon's expression turned grim after listening to something urgent from Javis.
~Cough. Cough. Cough~~
Landon choked on his coffee in disbelief.
This... This... How were they supposed to survive this?