# Did early explorers really worry that they might fall off the edge of the world? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 15, 2008, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-early-explorers-really-worry-that-they-might-fall-off-the-edge-of-the-world/472838 "2008-11-15T09:04:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-early-explorers-really-worry-that-they-might-fall-off-the-edge-of-the-world/472838/41 "2008-11-17T19:02:15Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Aren’t quadrants, octants, and sextants all forms of astrolabe? No. A [quadrant](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Quadrant.png) is an entirely different instrument. > [@](#): > > In any event, the use of any of them to determine latitude requires the assumption that the Earth is round. True. There was zero doubt at that time among educated people that the world was round. Zero. The question was the size and geographic distribution. The size was also known with a certain aproximation. The latitude difference between known geographical points was known with a reasonable accuracy and so the length of the degree was also known with a certain (rough) accuracy. Some would go with higher figures and some with lower. Columbus, like many people, not being immune to adjusting the facts to suit his purposes, proposed a very small world. Another variable was the distance between Spain and Japan by way of the Middle East. No one knew with any certainty how many degrees of longitude that might cover and Columbus proposed high figures so that the remainder, the distance from Spain to japan going west would be small. How much of that he really believed and how much of that was market8ing we do not know. probably there was a combination of all of it. He hd probably heard stories about land having been sighted to the NW Atlantic. Whether that was true or myth we do not know but he was probably influenced by it. He then tweaked the figures of longitude so they would fit his pre-concieved notion of where this land might be. And he assumed this land was Japan because no one had ever heard of anything else. He devised a selling plan which worked because it sold but we don’t know how much he really believed. Note that he also constantly lied to his crews about the distance being made good so that they believed they were not as far from Spain as they really were and so they believed they were closer and easier to get back home. One thing is clear and that is tha Columbus knew very well the currents and winds of the Atlantic and navigated mainly by dead reckoning rather than by astronav. But, yes, everyone knew the earth was round and no one really had any fear of falling off the edge. Their fears were much more real: in those times life at sea was tremendously unsafe and many who went never came back. But life inland was also very hard and people took risks that were unthinkable today. Well into the 20th century life at sea was _very_ risky and men were often lost overboard without much thought. Read any 19th century story about sailships and you will see what I mean. In the National Geographic Magazine, in the February 1931 issue, there is an article by Alan Villiers titled “Rounding Cape Horn in a Windjammer”. You can find it online. > [@](#): > > On the 38th day Walker was killed at his work in the rigging. It was very simple. Just one of those ordinary everyday accidents that nine hundred times kill nobody and on the 901st wreak vengeance on some innocent for their previous failings. > … > We were setting the fore upper topgallant sail, > … > When it was halfway up, the second mate saw that a gasket was foul on the weather clew. The sail would not hoist properly. He yelled aloft to Walker, through the rain, to go out on the lower topgallant yard to clear the gasket. Walker went and cleared it. He called down to us that everything was clear. We began to heave again. The halyards carried away and the yard came tumbling down. > > ``` > It fell on Walker, beneath it, and killed him there. > > We did not know that he was dead when we rushed up the mast and found him unconscious between the yards. We thought he was merely senseless. There was no sign of wound, save for some blood oozing slowly from his mouth. > > It never occurred to us that he was dead; we were too much concerned with bringing him to and getting him to the deck that we might see the extent of his injuries and what we could do about them. I tried to bring him to with cold water that had been brought from the deck. I did not know how hopeless it was. We wanted to restore him to his senses in order that he might help us with the difficult task of getting him, from high on that swaying mast, to the deck. It was not easy to bring a senseless body down that slippery and pitching rigging. > > But he did not come to. We rigged a gantline and lowered him down, gently, carefully. > > When we got to the bottom, Captain Svensson took one look. > > "He is dead," he said. > > ``` In 1893 the Spanish sailship [“Nautilus” was sailing around the world](http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viaje_de_circunnavegaci%C3%B3n_de_la_corbeta_Nautilus) when a sailor fell from the rigging and lost his life when he hit the deck. In “Two Years Before the Mast” Dana writes: > [@](#): > > Monday, Nov. 19th. This was a black day in our calendar. At seven o’clock in the morning, it being our watch below, we were aroused from a sound sleep by the cry of “All hands ahoy! a man overboard!” This unwonted cry sent a thrill through the heart of every one, and hurrying on deck we found the vessel hove flat aback, with all her studding-sails set; for the boy who was at the helm left it to throw something overboard, and the carpenter, who was an old sailor, knowing that the wind was light, put the helm down and hove her aback. The watch on deck were lowering away the quarter-boat, and I got on deck just in time to heave myself into her as she was leaving the side; but it was not until out upon the wide Pacific, in our little boat, that I knew whom we had lost. It was George Ballmer, a young English sailor, who was prized by the officers as an active lad and willing seaman, and by the crew as a lively, hearty fellow, and a good shipmate. He was going aloft to fit a strap round the main top-mast-head, for ringtail halyards, and had the strap and block, a coil of halyards and a marline-spike about his neck. He fell from the starboard futtock shrouds, and not knowing how to swim, and being heavily dressed, with all those things round his neck, he probably sank immediately. We pulled astern, in the direction in which he fell, and though we knew that there was no hope of saving him, yet no one wished to speak of returning, and we rowed about for nearly an hour, without the hope of doing anything, but unwilling to acknowledge to ourselves that we must give him up. At length we turned the boat’s head and made towards the vessel. > > Death is at all times solemn, but never so much so as at sea. A man dies on shore; his body remains with his friends, and “the mourners go about the streets;” but when a man falls overboard at sea and is lost, there is a suddenness in the event, and a difficulty in realizing it, which give to it an air of awful mystery. A man dies on shore–you follow his body to the grave, and a stone marks the spot. You are often prepared for the event. There is always something which helps you to realize it when it happens, and to recall it when it has passed. A man is shot down by your side in battle, and the mangled body remains an object, and a real evidence; but at sea, the man is near you-- at your side–you hear his voice, and in an instant he is gone, and nothing but a vacancy shows his loss. Then, too, at sea–to use a homely but expressive phrase–you miss a man so much. A dozen men are shut up together in a little bark, upon the wide, wide sea, and for months and months see no forms and hear no voices but their own, and one is taken suddenly from among them, and they miss him at every turn. It is like losing a limb. There are no new faces or new scenes to fill up the gap. There is always an empty berth in the forecastle, and one man wanting when the small night watch is mustered. There is one less to take the wheel, and one less to lay out with you upon the yard. You miss his form, and the sound of his voice, for habit had made them almost necessary to you, and each of your senses feels the loss. > > All these things make such a death peculiarly solemn, and the effect of it remains upon the crew for some time. There is more kindness shown by the officers to the crew, and by the crew to one another. There is more quietness and seriousness. The oath and the loud laugh are gone. The officers are more watchful, and the crew go more carefully aloft. The lost man is seldom mentioned, or is dismissed with a sailor’s rude eulogy–“Well, poor George is gone! His cruise is up soon! He knew his work, and did his duty, and was a good shipmate.” Then usually follows some allusion to another world, for sailors are almost all believers; but their notions and opinions are unfixed and at loose ends. They say,–“God won’t be hard upon the poor fellow,” and seldom get beyond the common phrase which seems to imply that their sufferings and hard treatment here will excuse them hereafter,–“To work hard, live hard, die hard, and go to hell after all, would be hard indeed!” Our cook, a simple-hearted old African, who had been through a good deal in his day, and was rather seriously inclined, always going to church twice a day when on shore, and reading his Bible on a Sunday in the galley, talked to the crew about spending their Sabbaths badly, and told them that they might go as suddenly as George had, and be as little prepared. > > Yet a sailor’s life is at best, but a mixture of a little good with much evil, and a little pleasure with much pain. The beautiful is linked with the revolting, the sublime with the commonplace, and the solemn with the ludicrous. > > We had hardly returned on board with our sad report, before an auction was held of the poor man’s clothes. The captain had first, however, called all hands aft and asked them if they were satisfied that everything had been done to save the man, and if they thought there was any use in remaining there longer. The crew all said that it was in vain, for the man did not know how to swim, and was very heavily dressed. So we then filled away and kept her off to her course. > > The laws regulating navigation make the captain answerable for the effects of a sailor who dies during the voyage, and it is either a law or a universal custom, established for convenience, that the captain should immediately hold an auction of his things, in which they are bid off by the sailors, and the sums which they give are deducted from their wages at the end of the voyage. In this way the trouble and risk of keeping his things through the voyage are avoided, and the clothes are usually sold for more than they would be worth on shore. Accordingly, we had no sooner got the ship before the wind, than his chest was brought up upon the forecastle, and the sale began. The jackets and trowsers in which we had seen him dressed but a few days before, were exposed and bid off while the life was hardly out of his body, and his chest was taken aft and used as a store-chest, so that there was nothing left which could be called his. Sailors have an unwillingness to wear a dead man’s clothes during the same voyage, and they seldom do so unless they are in absolute want. These things were part of everyday life and they were accepted as such. Only in very modern times do we expect complete safety. And this only in more advanced countries. There are still many hundreds of thousands who would assume the risk of drowning or otherwise dying in exchange for a small chance of reaching a developed country where they will have better life prospects. Many are dying every day in this pursuit. ---
**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\ **Post date:** [November 17, 2008, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-early-explorers-really-worry-that-they-might-fall-off-the-edge-of-the-world/472838/42 "2008-11-17T19:14:07Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Aren’t quadrants, octants, and sextants all forms of astrolabe? To expand a bit on this. A quadrant is an early instrument as is the astrolabe and they both work by direct sight. An octant is a much later reflection instrument and the sextant is a modified for of octant (the octant covers 90º and the sextant 120º). Froma wikipedia page to which I contributed long time ago > [@](#): > > [Navigational instrument - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigational_instrument) > > Celestial navigation instruments - These instruments are used primarily to measure the elevation or altitude of a celestial object: > > Back staff, the best known of which is the Davis’ quadrant. It could measure the altitude of the sun without having the navigator directly observe the sun. > > Cross staff, an older instrument long out of use. > > Kamal Very simple instrument used primarily by Arabian navigators. It consists of a small board with a knotted piece of twine through the center. The observer holds one of the knots in his mouth and extends the board away so that the edges make a constant angle with his eyes. > > Mariner’s astrolabe Derived from the astrolabe, it was developed in late 15th century and found use in the 16th to 17th centuries. It was replaced by the back staff and later by the octant and sextant. > > Quadrant A very simple instrument which used a plumb bob. > > These instruments are also used to measure the angular distance between objects: > > Octant, invented in 1731. The first widely-accepted instrument that could measure an angle without being strongly affected by movement. > > Sextant, derived from the octant in 1757, eventually made all previous instruments used for the same purpose obsolete. > > Bearing instruments > Pelorus used to determine bearings relative to the ship’s heading of landmarks, other ships, etc. > Compasses > Bearing compass used to determine magnetic bearings of landmarks, other ships or celestial bodies. > > Magnetic compass used to determine the magnetic heading of the ship > Timekeeping > Marine chronometer used to determine time at the prime meridian with great precision which is necessary when reducing sights in celestial navigation > > Nocturnal used to determine apparent local time by viewing the Polaris and its surrounding stars. > > Ring dial or astronomical ring used to measure the height of a celestial body above the horizon. It could be used to find the altitude of the sun or determine local time. It let sunlight shine through a small orifice on the rim of the instrument. The point of light striking the far side of the instrument gave the altitude or tell time. > > All those mentioned were the traditional instruments used until well into the second half of the 20th century. After WWII electronic aids to navigation developed very rapidly and, to a great extent, replaced more traditional tools. Electronic speed and depth finders have totally replaced their older counterparts. Radar has become widespread even in small boats. Some Electronic aids to navigation like Loran have already become obsolete themselves and have been replaced by GPS [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-early-explorers-really-worry-that-they-might-fall-off-the-edge-of-the-world/472838.md?page=2)