The story of the ocean

Indian Ocean, or from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific and in total they cover the greater part of the surface of the Earth. B Ocean voyages were made as long ago as 1000BCE, when Polynesians began migrating across the Pacific, setting off into the unknown. They reached small inhabited islands using only knowledge passed from navigator to apprentice, often using songs to memorize important facts, such as where specific stars would rise and set on the horizon. From Europe, Viking sailors crossed the North Atlantic and reached North America by 1000CE. In the Middle Ages, sea trade routes linked China to Egypt and Venice to London. Most seafarers kept close to the coastline whenever possible, however, and for many scholars, the ocean remained the subject of terror or denial. Arab geographer Al-Masudi in 957CE recorded a common sailors' tale that at the exit from the Mediterranean Sea into the Atlantic there were giant statues, indicating that there was 'no way beyond'. The German storyteller Adam of Bremen wrote in 1076: 'Beyond Norway, which is the farthermost northern country, you will find no human habitation, nothing but ocean, terrible to look at and limitless.' Around 1290 a map was presented to Hereford Cathedral. In…