The word periplus [Greek περí = around, and πλους = voyage: περíπλους = circumnavigation] was included in the titles of some early works in which geographical descriptions of coastlands were given. The Periplus of Hanno the Carthaginian is an example of this type of periplus, which was not designed specifically for navigational purposes.Google Scholar

Nordenskiöld, A. E. (1897) Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing Directions. Stockholm.Google Scholar

Herodotus (c. 450 b.c.). The Histories. Edited by Komroff, M. (1928) from a translation by G., Rawlinson. New York.Google Scholar

Herodotus, during his peregrinations in Egypt in the fifth century b.c., heard about the voyage ordered by Necho in the seventh century b.c. ‘As for Libya,’ wrote Herodotus ‘we know it to be washed on all sides by the sea, except where it is attached to Asia. This discovery was made by Nechos, the Egyptian King, who on desisting from the canal which he had begun between the Nile and the Arabian Gulf, sent to sea a number of ships manned by Phoenicians, with orders to make for the Pillars of Hercules, and return to Egypt through them, and by the Mediterranean. The Phoenicians took their departure from Egypt by way of the Erythraean Sea, and so sailed into the Southern Ocean. When autumn came, they went ashore, wherever they might happen to be, and having sown a tract of land with corn, waited until the grain was fit to cut. Having reaped it, they again set sail: and thus it came to pass that two whole years went by, and it was not till the third year that they doubled the Pillars of Hercules, and made good their voyage home…»Google Scholar

Anon. (c. a.d. 50). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. Translated from the Greek and annotated by Schoff, W. H. (1912). New York and London.Google Scholar

It is interesting to reflect on the word ‘chart’. It stems from the Greek χáρτυς and the Latin ‘charta', meaning ‘leaf of papyrus or paper’. In ancient times a piece of writing, especially a systematic set of rules, was known as a ‘chart', although later the word came to be used to denote a pictorial map, or nautical chart.Google Scholar

Portolan charts are characterized by the maze of intersecting rhumb-lines that cover the sea area. The term ‘compass-chart’ is sometimes used to describe a portolan chart. It has been argued that the rhumb-lines on a portolan chart indicate that such charts were constructed on the basis of magnetic bearings; and were, therefore, invented after the advent of the magnetic compass. The earliest dated portolan chart extant is one signed by Pietro Vesconte in 1311. See Cortesao, A. (1969), History of Portuguese Cartography, vol. 1, Coimbra.Google Scholar

Taylor, E. G. R. (1951). The oldest Mediterranean pilot. This Journal, 4, 81.Google Scholar

Mota, A. Teixeira Da, (1972). Atlantic winds and ocean currents in Portuguese documents. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Vol. 73. Edinburgh.Google Scholar

The word ‘roteiro’ appears to come from the same root as the French ‘route', meaning ‘a direction taken when travelling from one place to another’. In modern Portuguese: ‘roteiro’ = ‘logbook’.Google Scholar

Quoted by Mota, A. Teixeira da. See note 10.Google Scholar

Dahlgren, E. W. (1897). Sailing directions for the northern seas [in Nordenskiöld, A. E. (1897). Periplus. Stockholm.].Google Scholar

See Lang, A. (1972): On the beginnings of the oldest descriptions and sea-charts by seamen from North-West Europe. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, 73. EdinburghGoogle Scholar

Lang, A. (1968). Seekarten der sudlichcn Nord- and Ost-see…. Hamburg.Google Scholar

Gairdner, J. (ed.) (1889). Sailing Directions for the Circumnavigation of England and for a Voyage to the Straits of Gibraltar. Hakluyt Society Publication, no. 79. London.Google Scholar

Waters, D. W. (1967). The Rutters of the Sea. New Haven and London.Google Scholar

Ruddock, A. (1961). The earliest original English seaman's Rutter and pilot's chart. This Journal. 14, 409.Google Scholar

The Kenning was a unit of distance used by early mariners, equivalent to the distance at which the shore could first be seen from the offing when making a landfall.Google Scholar

Cotter, C. H. (1979). Coastal views in the Development of the Nautical chart. Presented to The Hydrographic Society and to be published in the Society's Journal.Google Scholar

This interesting chart in colour on vellum is preserved in the British Museum [Cottonian MSS, Aug. I. i. 58.]Google Scholar

Waghenaer, L. J. (1584). Spieghel der Zeevaert, vande navigatie der Westersche Zee…. Leyden. [An English translation of Waghenaer's Spieghel was prepared by Anthony Ashley in 1588. It was published under the title The Mariner's Mirror.].Google Scholar

Skelton, R. A. (1965). Bibliographical note to th e facsimile edition of Waghenaer, L. J., (1925), Thresoor der Zeevaert. Leyden.Google Scholar

Tanner, J. R. (Editor) (1926). Samuel Peoys's Naval Minutes. Navy Records Society Publication. London.Google Scholar

See Anon. (1920): The records of some ancient firms of chart publishers, Nautical Magazine. 104 (Glasgow).Google Scholar

Examination of the book of signs and symbols used in Admiralty Charts, which recently replaced Admiralty Chan 5011, reveals the enormous amount of data that is given on present-day Admiralty charts, as well as the ingenuity of the cartographer in devising symbols (many of which are self-explanatory) to denote this data.Google Scholar