Traditional Navigation Using the North Atlantic Coastal Shelf

When the first Viking caught sight of Vinland (Canada) by accident circa 986, he was unable to land there. Following information from this first accidental voyage, Leif Ericson was able to reach Canada fourteen years later. Sailing in the summer--with the midnight sun--and guided by the pole star, Leif followed the continental shelf (see arrows on map) to reach what we now know as the coast of Canada. While Ericson did not have a compass, it would have been useless in these northern latitudes where magnetic deviation is very large.

For centuries, Northern European sailors, like Leif, hugged the coastline, guided by the high continental shelf (the edges of the continents wher e the sea bottom is not deep and shown here in light blue). The shallow waters along the northern rim of the Atlantic allowed Vikings such as Leif to reach North America. Further to the south in Europe, sailors cruising the Mediterranean were seldom more than a day away from sight of land, making them just as coastal as their northern brethern.

As coastal navigators, Europeans had not ventured into the South Atlantic because the ocean had a narrow continental shelf. ( See the difference between the generous continental shelf around Great Britain and Scandinavia (left and above) and the slender western coast around Africa.) Furthermore, because they would have to sail against winds and currents, the continental shelf w as impossible to follow beyond a place called the Bulging Cape (Cabo Bojador). Before 1400 there existed no European tradition of high seas navigation because the South Atlantic was too difficult to sail using any type of traditional knowledge.

Available Elsewhere on the Net

Vikings (Denmark's semi-official history) | Norways' Semi-Official History | Recent Books on Viking Ships in English| Actual Danish Viking Ships unearthed in Roskilde text in Danish | Canada's Semi-Official Story | Bibliography on European Coastal Navigation