Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

How to improve the speed of ancient mariners

+0
−0

My world is set in ancient times on a planet similar to Earth, but with a different civilization and different geography (and lots of canals). I need to find a way of giving the inhabitants better mobility at sea and on canals. Wind is not reliable enough as it may not blow and when it does blow it might blow from the wrong direction. Human oar power is always available but it's too slow.

What innovations might an ancient civilization utilize to speed up sea transport? Whatever is used needs to be plausibly discoverable or inventible by the ancient society. The society can be considered to be as inquisitive as necessary, but can't use steam power or any more modern sources of power. Historically anachronistic artefacts may be used provided there is a plausible mechanism for their discovery or invention (if used please describe).

History
Why does this post require moderator attention?
You might want to add some details to your flag.
Why should this post be closed?

This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/160015. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.

0 comment threads

0 answers

Sign up to answer this question »