Ship
From Almeopedia
Ships are the backbone of commerce in a premodern world— to say nothing of administration, war, exploration, and travel. To transport the same cargo by land that a ship can carry would require a major expedition. All the major cities of Almea are on the sea or a river. (For the purposes of this sketch, the English distinction between ‘ships’ and ‘boats’ is unimportant.)
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Ancient boats
Boats were invented by hunter-gatherers, who built rafts or canoes for fishing or simply to navigate river systems or littorals.
In the south
The Wede:i built wooden boats (wa:i) and probably invented the sail; the Wede:i word da:ur also means ‘skin’ and ‘bark’, which may have been the earliest materials or may be metaphorical; the classic Wede:i riverboat had sails of hemp canvas. The earliest ships had no rudder, but were steered with a large oar.
The Jei, descendents of the Wede:i, were the first to build ships (veymə) to explore the sea, around -250; they didn’t venture far from the coast, but this was enough to explore the southern coast from Luduyn to Mnau. They built a skeleton of ribs, while the hull itself was built of planks fitted together by mortise and tenon joints; they were propelled either by a single square sail or by rowers. The Jei ship was suited for both war and trade; a second row of oars was later added for speed, and a heavy front beak for ramming other vessels.
The Skourenes at first purchased rowboats from the Jei, then copied them, then expanded them into a longboat (konşim) suitable for exploring and colonizing the Skourene Sea in the 100s.
In the north
The Meťaiun had several types of boats: rowboats, punts, small sailboats; the latter were called koadu ‘fast thing’, which became Caď. cora. Meťaiun and later Cuzeian and Caďinorian ships were built with overlapping nailed planks.
Around 200, the Meťaiun created larger sailing ships (carrying 50 tons) which could stand up to the Mišicama, though captains rarely ventured beyond sight of land. These were sufficient to colonize Koto and Kebri, and during the Munkhâshi invasion they helped to preserve the independence of the littoral: Munkhâsh never developed much of a navy.
The Caďinorians inherited Meťaiun shipbuilding; their only major innovations were a sterncastle, a platform on the stern for archers, and an increase in scale, up to 150 tons and three masts; anything larger than this would not be able to navigate the rivers of Eretald. Nonetheless the sailing ship, pelantos, was the foundation of Caďinorian trade and became a symbol of prosperity, often depicted on coins— the ship on the Verdurian coin is a pelantos (Ver. felát).
Seagoing ships
Around 400 the Jei developed a true ocean-going ship— a trireme, with a second sail which could be shifted for easier maneuvering, with twin steering oars attached to the hull. For more than a century the Jei dominated the seas, adding colonies at strategic points. But the Skourenes were fast learners, and had a more sophisticated banking system; they first copied the Jei triremes, then produced their own bigger, stronger şoḷmim, featuring three square sails and a sterncastle.
Earlier mariners needed little to get around but their memory of the rivers and coasts; sailing the open sea required new techniques of navigation: charts, a knowledge of the stars (especially Čunima, the constellation marking the southern celestial pole), an understanding of latitude (which could be read from the height of the Čunima or Ënomai’s zenith). By 1300 the cities of the Skourene littoral had developed the compass (ṭarḍeşşen ‘south-shower’).
Over the next century they developed a true rudder as well as improvements in rigging that facilitated tacking into the wind; ships were now much more maneuverable, and did not need to depend on banks of rowers to negotiate a port. The greatest achievement of the Kolatimandiki was the 3000 km crossing to Arcél (1400). These were some of the largest ships yet built, as much as 1000 tons.
The Axunemi inherited but did not improve Jeori shipbuilding, and Skourene ships declined after the Tžuro conquest. However, Čeiy contributed the lateen sail (a triangular auxiliary sail) around 2000.
The northern renaissance
While Eretald was consumed with barbarian invasions and the decline of Caďinas, the island nation of Kebri prospered. The Kebreni ship (nabira) was based on the pelantos, but typically had two triangular sails (more precisely settee sails, the front angle of the triangle being blunted). As the Kebreni were content to leave river trade to the Caďinorians, they built their ships larger, up to 600 tons; the increased intimidation factor was not unwelcome as they conquered Érenat in the 2600s.
The compass had diffused to Caďinas as a curiosity; the Kebreni adopted it for navigation, and also invented the astrolabe (śagiḣ), a portable representation of the sky used for calculating local time, predicting the position of astronomical objects, and measuring angles.
By 3000 Kebreni ships were sturdy tubs of two or three decks, carrying up to a thousand tons, with an elaborate system of rigging that allowed easy control of the sails. These ships were capable of the long voyages to Nan, Moreo Ašcai, and Xurno, and in the 3200s to Arcél. The Verdurians worked hard to catch up to Kebreni technology during the Eleďe dynasty; Verdurian extensively borrowed Kebreni terms, including the word for ‘ship’ (navira).
Recent developments
The northern states developed new navigational instruments: the octant (Érenat, 3321) and above all the marine chronometer, developed by the Verdurian Navy in the 3400s, essential for the accurate determination for longitude.
The Tžuro slowly recovered the shipbuilding expertise of the Skourenes. After the Sainor conquest of Šura (2795), the Tžuro elite moved to Jaešim, and aggressively worked to control the littoral trade. The greater distances required larger ships; within a century the Jaešimi were trading with Gurdago and Xurno, and not long after made the crossing to Arcél, founding the colony of Fananak there in 2988.
Čeiy pioneered the use of cannon on ships during its civil war (2940-63), and built the first iron-plated ships in the 3300s, which helped it to grab Mešäriš from Luṭay.
In recent years the northerners have applied steam technology to ships. Živmey Araric inaugurated a regular run of a steam-powered paddleship from Verduria city to Vyat in 3476, and the Kebreni have begun a similar service from Kebropol to Laaven.
