SEJARAH KAPAL LAUT
![Egyptian jar [Credit: Photograph by Katie Chao. Brooklyn Museum, New York, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 09.889.400]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v5uhYRDUl5jkjz63FC5CVaTcnEMvob4tVKoJmM57Sal5HeEsxIt3_u4J9m3jCTH92LMC5qhvgQqQi2QYUw3X4U3v-HjfoAQhk03YljlE6QDS_f4Eu87-GEfXqX3ouXIQmLBNYXJZwjm-r7rP5J_PgQb3nmnv4m9hADxp4Jf78NDMZdU0Awv88UkSCgTD4=s0-d)
The earliest historical evidence of boats is found in
Egyptduring the 4th millennium
bce. A culture nearly completely riparian,
Egypt was narrowly aligned along the
Nile, totally supported by it, and served by transport on its uninterruptedly navigable surface below the First Cataract (at modern-day Aswān). There are representations of Egyptian boats used to carry obelisks on the Nile from Upper Egypt that were as long as 300 feet (100 metres), longer than any
warship constructed in the era of wooden ships.
Bukti - bukti awal yang menunjukan penggunaan kapal laut ditemukan di Mesir , diperkirakan pada 4000 thn sebelum Masehi . Mesir terletak di sepanjang aliran sungai Nil dan kehidupan mereka bergantung dengan Nil. Mereka menggunakan alat transportasi
![ship: ancient Egyptian papyrus showing a boat on the Nile River [Credit: © Keith Wheatley/Fotolia.com]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v8sbGv2TlxFELymrmoY-Im1qGYP9tVCoRSEk429NZze2GDwMGQXlHXqL1TJpTUUnefOsiPmGmg_a3usVL7-pB-fXzjNU7qoWE0mvt5hfjXdotPoKWXFM-fQswDkYXKNQOIkh3KHRykeLPBCkG8EREjTfUYGHMh_Gz4couesly-GyWmGFi0milIm2oCWGs=s0-d)
The Egyptian boats commonly featured
sails as well as oars. Because they were confined to the Nile and depended on winds in a narrow channel, recourse to rowing was essential. This became true of most navigation when the Egyptians began to venture out onto the shallow waters of the Mediterranean and Red seas. Most early Nile boats had a single
square sail as well as one level, or row, of oarsmen. Quickly, several levels came into use, as it was difficult to maneuver very elongated boats in the open sea. The later Roman two-level bireme and three-level
trireme were most common, but sometimes more than a dozen banks of oars were used to propel the largest boats.
Navigation on the sea began among Egyptians as early as the 3rd millennium
bce. Voyages to
Crete were among the earliest, followed by voyages guided by landmark navigation to
Phoenicia and, later, using the early canal that tied the Nile to the
Red Sea, by trading journeys sailing down the eastern coast of
Africa. According to the 5th-century-
bce Greek historian
Herodotus, the king of Egypt about 600
bce dispatched a fleet from a
Red Sea port that returned to Egypt via the Mediterranean after a journey of more than two years. Cretan and Phoenician voyagers gave greater attention to the specialization of ships for trade.
![cargo ship: model of a Phoenician ship [Credit: Courtesy of the Museum of The Philadelphia Civic Center]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_vsOo_4xbD6VAP6mV1ClAJ21mrzToDRI9sp_8nJspqzKVYICf-wZHPnH-6Qb-4ACaoI1KrvDW4TCuhPttig5bNYb6lxUcR9JVAMgGm5DE4oWDwuuHKAyIbePpzWF90w13Jr60gDGPs=s0-d)
The basic functions of the
warship and
cargo ship determined their design. Because fighting ships required speed, adequate space for substantial numbers of fighting men, and the ability to maneuver at any time in any direction, long, narrow rowed ships became the standard for naval warfare. In contrast, because trading ships sought to carry as much
tonnage of goods as possible with as small a crew as practicable, the trading vessel became as round a ship as might navigate with facility. The trading vessel required increased
freeboard (height between the waterline and upper deck level), as the swell in the larger seas could fairly easily swamp the low-sided galleys propelled by oarsmen. As rowed galleys became higher-sided and featured additional banks of oarsmen, it was discovered that the height of ships caused new problems. Long oars were awkward and quickly lost the force of their sweep. Thus, once kings and traders began to perceive the need for specialized ships, ship design became an important undertaking.
![galley [Credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_s-gmw5KBRMy6KTCxEGoE_9NEyFrlUOla0Cq87URt5e-MKCDYCCLjbcJqttLx8yobV-0_TPi2A3OUObJw7ZJ3H-SvBUpPq0FJobEDsLzXKsGfX3Ezd4wMKI2n-vZemVzLdOO95dCps=s0-d)
As was true of early wheeled vehicles, ship design also showed strong geographic orientation.
Julius Caesar, for one, quickly perceived the distinctive, and in some ways superior, qualities of the ships of northern
Europe. In the conquest of Britain and in their encounter with the Batavian area in Holland, Romans became aware of the northern European boat. It was generally of
clinker construction (that is, with a hull built of overlapping timbers) and identical at either end. In the Mediterranean, ship design favoured
carvel-built(that is, built of planks joined along their lengths to form a smooth surface) vessels that differed at the bow and stern (the forward and rear ends, respectively). In the early centuries, both Mediterranean and northern boats were commonly rowed, but the cyclonic storms found year-round in the
Baltic and
North Sea latitudes encouraged the use of sails. Because the sailing techniques of these early centuries depended heavily on sailing with a following
wind (i.e., from behind), the frequent shifts in wind direction in the north permitted, after only relatively short waits, navigation in most
compass directions. In the persistent summer high-pressure systems of the Mediterranean the long waits for a change of wind direction discouraged sailing. It was also more economical to carry goods by ship in the north. With a less absolute dependence on rowing, the double-ended clinker boat could be built with a greater freeboard than was possible in the rowed galleys of the Mediterranean. When European sailors began to look with increasing curiosity at the seemingly boundless
Atlantic Ocean, greater freeboard made oceanic navigation more practicable.