To be blown off course in the

sailing ship A sailing ship is a sea-going vessel that uses sails mounted on masts to harness the power of wind and propel the vessel. There is a variety of sail plans that propel sailing ships, employing square-rigged or fore-and-aft sails. Some ships ...

era meant be to diverted by unexpected winds, getting lost possibly to shipwreck or to a new destination. In the ancient world, this was especially a great danger before the maturation of the

Maritime Silk Road The Maritime Silk Road or Maritime Silk Route is the Maritime history, maritime section of the historic Silk Road that connected Southeast Asia, China, the Indian subcontinent, the Arabian peninsula, Somalia, Egypt and Europe. It began by the 2n ...

in the Early Middle Ages, finding expression in the writing of

Cosmas Indicopleustes Cosmas Indicopleustes ( grc-x-koine, Κοσμᾶς Ἰνδικοπλεύστης, lit=Cosmas who sailed to India; also known as Cosmas the Monk) was a Greek merchant and later hermit from Alexandria of Egypt. He was a 6th-century traveller who ma ...

. Even in later eras, the ship could attempt to limit its divergence by tacking or heaving to, but it was often difficult to keep track by mere celestial navigation before the invention of the

marine chronometer A marine chronometer is a precision timepiece that is carried on a ship and employed in the determination of the ship's position by celestial navigation. It is used to determine longitude by comparing Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), or in the modern ...

in the late 18th century. A number of "discoveries" during the

Age of Discovery The Age of Discovery (or the Age of Exploration), also known as the early modern period, was a period largely overlapping with the Age of Sail, approximately from the 15th century to the 17th century in European history, during which seafarin ...

were accidentally found in this way, and the serendipity of being blown off course is also a trope in fiction. Accidental discovery may have played a larger role than previously acknowledged in early European colonialism in contrast to the idea of a centrally-planned program as by Prince Henry the Navigator, but it is also thought that the

Austronesian expansion The Austronesian peoples, sometimes referred to as Austronesian-speaking peoples, are a large group of peoples in Taiwan, Maritime Southeast Asia, Micronesia, coastal New Guinea, Island Melanesia, Polynesia, and Madagascar that speak Austron ...

was more directed and purposeful than once thought, rather than being the result of accidental drift.

Historical voyages

*640 BC: Colaeus *116 BC: Eudoxus of Cyzicus *62 BC: " Indos quosdem", survivors of an Indian shipwreck in Suebi presented to

Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer Quintus Caecilius Metellus Celer (before 103 BC or c. 100 BC – 59 BC), a member of the powerful Caecilius Metellus family (plebeian nobility, not patrician) who were at their zenith during Celer's lifetime. A son of Quintus Caecilius Metell ...

, as recorded by Cornelius Nepos and

Pomponius Mela Pomponius Mela, who wrote around AD 43, was the earliest Roman geographer. He was born in Tingentera (now Algeciras) and died AD 45. His short work (''De situ orbis libri III.'') remained in use nearly to the year 1500. It occupies less ...

*50:

Rhapta Rhapta ( grc, Ῥάπτα and Ῥαπτά) was an emporion said to be on the coast of Southeast Africa, first described in the 1st century CE. Its location has not been firmly identified, although there are a number of plausible candidate sites. ...

*412:

Faxian Faxian (法顯 ; 337 CE – c. 422 CE), also referred to as Fa-Hien, Fa-hsien and Sehi, was a Chinese Buddhist monk and translator who traveled by foot from China to India to acquire Buddhist texts. Starting his arduous journey about age 60, h ...

*986: Bjarni Herjólfsson *999:

Leif Erikson Leif Erikson, Leiv Eiriksson, or Leif Ericson, ; Modern Icelandic: ; Norwegian: ''Leiv Eiriksson'' also known as Leif the Lucky (), was a Norse explorer who is thought to have been the first European to have set foot on continental Nort ...

*1312:

Lancelotto Malocello Lancelotto Malocello () (Latin: ''Lanzarotus Marocelus''; french: Lancelot Maloisel; fl. 1312) was a Genoese navigator, who gave his name to the island of Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands. ''Lancelotto'' is the Italian form of the proper name ...

*1349: Giovanni de' Marignolli *1406: Thorstein Olafsson *1418:

João Gonçalves Zarco João Gonçalves Zarco ( 1390 – 21 November 1471) was a Portuguese explorer who established settlements and recognition of the Madeira Islands, and was appointed first captain of Funchal by Henry the Navigator. Life Zarco was born in Portugal ...

and Tristão Vaz Teixeira *1488: Bartolomeu Dias *1500: 2nd Portuguese India Armada *1505: Lourenço de Almeida *1525: Gomes de Sequeira *1527:

Narváez expedition The Narváez expedition was a Spanish journey of exploration and colonization started in 1527 that intended to establish colonial settlements and garrisons in Florida. The expedition was initially led by Pánfilo de Narváez, who died in 1528. M ...

*1535:

Fray Tomás de Berlanga Fray or Frays or The Fray may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional entities *Fray, a phenomenon in Terry Pratchett's '' The Carpet People'' *Fray, the main character in the video games: **''Fray in Magical Adventure'' **''Fray CD' ...

*1543:

António Mota António da Mota was a Portuguese trader and explorer, who in 1543 became one of the first Europeans to set foot in Japan. Voyage While traveling to Ningbo with a Chinese junk in 1543 (some sources say 1542), Mota and the rest of the crew were ...

*1578: ''

Golden Hind ''Golden Hind'' was a galleon captained by Francis Drake in his circumnavigation of the world between 1577 and 1580. She was originally known as ''Pelican,'' but Drake renamed her mid-voyage in 1578, in honour of his patron, Sir Christopher Hat ...

'' *1599:

Dirck Gerritsz Pomp Dirck Gerritszoon Pomp, alias Dirck China (1544 – c. 1608), was a Dutch sailor of the 16th–17th century, and the first known Dutchman to visit China and Japan. Pomp was born in Enkhuizen in the Burgundian Netherlands. As a youth, he was sent ...

*1609: ''

Sea Venture ''Sea Venture'' was a seventeenth-century English sailing ship, part of the Third Supply mission to the Jamestown Colony, that was wrecked in Bermuda in 1609. She was the 300 ton purpose-built flagship of the London Company and a highly unusual ...

'' *1615:

Eggert Ólafsson Eggert Ólafsson (1 December 1726 – 30 May 1768) was an Icelandic explorer, writer and conservator of the Icelandic language. He also worked to revive the Icelandic culture and economy. Background He was the son of a farmer from Svefneyjar in ...

*1616: '' Eendracht'' *1620: ''

Mayflower ''Mayflower'' was an English ship that transported a group of English families, known today as the Pilgrims, from England to the New World in 1620. After a grueling 10 weeks at sea, ''Mayflower'', with 102 passengers and a crew of about 30, r ...

'' *1638: ''

Nuestra Señora de la Concepción ''Nuestra Señora de la Concepción'' (Spanish: "Our Lady of the (Immaculate) Conception") was a 120-ton Spanish galleon that sailed the Peru–Panama trading route during the 16th century. This ship has earned a place in maritime history not o ...

'' *1654:

Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam The Jewish arrival in New Amsterdam of September 1654 was the first organized Jewish migration to North America. It comprised 23 Sephardi Jews, refugees "big and little" of families fleeing persecution by the Portuguese Inquisition after the conqu ...

*1675:

Anthony de la Roché Anthony de la Roché (spelled also ''Antoine de la Roché'', ''Antonio de la Roché'' or ''Antonio de la Roca'' in some sources) was a 17th-century English merchant born in London to a French Huguenot father and an English mother. During a c ...

*1707: Scilly naval disaster *1770:

First voyage of James Cook The first voyage of James Cook was a combined Royal Navy and Royal Society expedition to the south Pacific Ocean aboard HMS ''Endeavour'', from 1768 to 1771. It was the first of three Pacific voyages of which James Cook was the commander. The ...

*1815: '' Arniston''

Historical states and lost sailors

Lê dynasty The Lê dynasty, also known as Later Lê dynasty ( vi, Hậu Lê triều, chữ Hán: 後黎朝 or vi, nhà Hậu Lê, link=no, chữ Nôm: 茹後黎), was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, ruling Đại Việt from 1428 to 1789. The Lê ...

in Vietnam *

Sakoku was the Isolationism, isolationist Foreign policy of Japan, foreign policy of the Japanese Tokugawa shogunate under which, for a period of 265 years during the Edo period (from 1603 to 1868), relations and trade between Japan and other countri ...

in Japan

In popular culture

*''

Odyssey The ''Odyssey'' (; grc, Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia, ) is one of two major Ancient Greek literature, ancient Greek Epic poetry, epic poems attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest extant works of literature still widely read by moder ...

'' *''

Aeneid The ''Aeneid'' ( ; la, Aenē̆is or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan_War#Sack_of_Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to ...

'' *''

A True Story ''A True Story'' ( grc, Ἀληθῆ διηγήματα, ''Alēthē diēgēmata''; or ), also translated as True History, is a long novella or short novel written in the second century AD by the Greek author Lucian of Samosata. The novel is a sa ...

'' *

Sinbad the Sailor Sinbad the Sailor (; ar, سندباد البحري, Sindibādu al-Bahriyy; fa, سُنباد بحری, Sonbād-e Bahri or Sindbad) is a fictional mariner and the hero of a story-cycle of Persian origin. He is described as hailing from Baghdad ...

*'' The Tempest'' *''

Gulliver's Travels ''Gulliver's Travels'', or ''Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World. In Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships'' is a 1726 prose satire by the Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan ...

'' *'' Wasobyoe'' *"

MS. Found in a Bottle "MS. Found in a Bottle" is an 1833 short story by American writer Edgar Allan Poe. The plot follows an unnamed narrator at sea who finds himself in a series of harrowing circumstances. As he nears his own disastrous death while his ship drives ev ...

References

{{reflist Winds Age of Discovery Age of Sail Maritime disasters Navigation

Historical voyages

Historical states and lost sailors

In popular culture

See also

References