10 Amazing Inventions by Jack Goldstein & Jimmy Russell

Author:Jack Goldstein & Jimmy Russell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: invention, wheel, fire, science, edison, tesla, Bagger, technology, lightbulb, fun, trivia, history, facts, education, classroom, debate, discussion, internet, discovery, exploration, space, curiosity, NASA, moon, mars, culture, babbage, thinker, philosophy, ustinov
ISBN: 9781782344971
Publisher: Andrews UK Limited 2012
Published: 2012-11-28T00:00:00+00:00

5: The Boat

Mate - the boat is boss. Imagine a world without boats. When shortlisting inventions for this book, Jack and I considered the notion of the aeroplane. Whilst the aeroplane is a pretty important invention, it has had nowhere near the impact that the boat had. Without boats, travel around the world, exploration of the globe and all the wonderful things discovered because of it would simply not have happened. The Pilgrim Fathers who settled the very first American colony in Plymouth, Massachusetts would not have made their journey if not for boats, and where would you be now because of it?

Whole nations have been won and lost on the strength of boats and the heroic crews who made them their home. The smell of the sea air, the creaking of the wooden boards, the gentle sway in the wind - all these romantic images are built upon our love and respect for such a brilliant feat of engineering.

Boats have been in use for about the last one hundred thousand years or so - the first boats were probably fallen trees which monkey people sat on when they weren’t braining each other with big clubs or worshipping a black monolith but before long they were sophisticated feats of engineering allowing travel, communication and more importantly trade between nations otherwise separated by unconquerable physical barriers.

But more important than all of that namby-pamby hippy stuff, boats are amazing due to their incredible application to WAR! The Viking Marauders’ longboats crashing onto the shores of the new world bringing death and destruction in their wake; the great battle of Salamis where three hundred Greek boats completely obliterated some thirteen hundred Persian ships in the greatest naval campaign in history; Lord Admiral Nelson’s crippling defeat over Napoleon’s fleet during the Battle of Trafalgar and all the way to the epic Battle of Leyte Gulf in World War II... it’s an undeniable fact that boats have won wars, saved lives and irrevocably changed the world around us.

The golden age of piracy (in fact the seventeenth century as a whole) is one of the most enigmatic periods in history, filled with brave heroes, wicked villains and epic tales of adventure, swashbuckling and buried treasure - this is entirely down to our romantic relationship with the sea and the phenomenal invention that is the boat.

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