 I hope you can see anything because I thought the screen would be larger. The colonization of the islands in the Mediterranean Sea, which very far from the land in early Neolithic times, is a clear indicator for the capacity of men to cross open waters regularly, even taking their livestock with them. Another hint for long-distance passages is a fragment of a Neolithic world discovered at Maiden Castle, Britain. The next sites for the production of these querns are known from France near the mount of the river Seine. Some passages require considerable knowledge and seamanship, just as crossing the pen land-first between Scotland and Orkney with tidal streams up to ten knots. These traces for open water passages raise three basic questions. What kind of vessels were used? How were they propelled? And how could they navigate out of the sight of the land? The most simple vessel would be a raft. These were widely used on rivers up to the 20th century, not only for transporting wood, but also for cargoes and passengers as well. The only known exception are the Balda raft, employed in local traffic along the Pacific coasts of South America, which were already observed by the Spanish conquistadores. Thanks to a clever system of dagger boards, they were even able to save the windward. Since the days of Tuahal Adal, who used the Balda raft, this kind of watercraft is popular for all kinds of experimental voyages. Though rafts have proved to be very sea-worthy, they are slow and hard to steer. Therefore, it is difficult to control them in narrow waters. Further, they cannot be launched or beached easily. Finally, they cannot withstand the stress of waves a long time and some had to be abandoned in the open ocean. Therefore, it seems highly unlikely that this kind of watercraft played any important role for offshore traffic in early times. Lockboats, which are known from all continents, offer a better solution. The oldest archaeological evidence is the mesolithic weather from Pleasant Netherlands, probably dating to 8,000 B.C. The carbon capacity and the sea versatility is limited by the size of the motherlock. This drawback can be overcome by expanding the beam. This is well known from ethnographic evidence. For instance, the first nations along the Pacific coast expanded their already large cedar-locked boats and grey whales. Recently, the remains of a lockboat were discovered in Mitru, Greece, dating to middle-heladic one or early two. Though the wood was much decayed and the hull shape is distorted, a ladies' fundamental think that it must have been an expend-clockboat. Another solution to improve the sea-keeping ability are additional strengths. The oldest archaeological evidence for this are lockboats of Vera 1 and 2 Denmark, dating to the late Funnelbaker culture. At the top of the sides is a regular row of holes where the wooden pegs still sticking one by one. From this, Detlef Elmer is constructed an extra stake. By this, technical knowledge is much older. A similar rows of holes are found in the fragment of a lockboat of Margarete's MS-3, Denmark, dating to about 4,000 B.C. Other signs for advanced boat-building techniques are the inserted transoms of the lockboat T-Brent 1 and 2, also dating around 4,000 B.C. Sometimes the illustrations of the models of vessels are too rough to show any details, but most likely the so-called big ships from early and middle Minoian seals represent lockboats with raised sides. The combination of both methods leads to very sea-worthy hulls. In the 18th century AD, such vessels sailed from the mouth of the river Jeper to the coast of Asia Minor in favour of winds from 36 to 40 hours. Another kind of vessels are skin or hide boats of various shapes and sizes. These are known not only from the Arctic region but also from North America and the British islands. Some, like the carcass of Ireland, have been used in rough open waters. The hull looks very vulnerable, but thanks to the easy construction they can cope with rough handling and can even be used for transporting cows. In fact, Timothy Zeivarin had crossed the Atlantic in a skin boat successfully. Archaeological evidence for this kind of craft is difficult to detect because they will vanish without trace. But in the early Bronze Age Cemetery of Barnes Farm, Britain, the corpse engraved two-legged wicker basket which was covered with leather on the outside. Perhaps the hide boat, similar to present-day coracles of Ireland or Wales. Finally, bark boat should be mentioned. They are apart from Europe known from all continents. But as far as I know, no archaeological evidence has ever been found, but this does not exclude that they may have used in prehistoric Europe as well. Those these bustles are light with a high cargo capacity. The use in open waters is limited because their bark skins can easily be held during launching or beaching. Therefore, it is not surprising that all ethnographic evidence write for inland waters. When playing boat came into use, it's still open. Perhaps the oldest known archaeological example is from the Cios Pyramid in Egypt dating to about 2500 BC. Though this is a river boat, the boat-building techniques of sewing clangs together could be used for seago in bustles as well. In the British Isle, the plank boat of North Haribi goes back to the Bronze Age. In the Scandinavia, the oldest known example is the short-spin boat dating to the 4th century BC. Even if plank boats were used earlier than the one mentioned, they have in common with log or skin boats that were undead vessels and were thus liable of being swarmed. Therefore, the most important piece of equipment for all these crafts were scoped to bail away incoming water out. In fact, in anything but a flat sea, constant bailing is vital in any open boat. None of these early known remains of boats show any signs of the use of oars either for pushing or pulling. In the Mediterranean, this means of propulsion is known at least since the middle of the 3rd century BC, and in the Scandinavia, the Nudum boat dating from the 4th century AD is the oldest example. For long passengers, sails would be more effective, but again, archaeological evidence is poor. Depicting of ships indicate that square sails were known in the Mediterranean at least since 3,500 BC. On the other hand, in the channel region, sails are mentioned as late at the 1st century BC, and in Scandinavia, the Ouseberg ship from the 9th century is the oldest known example. Even if there are good reasons to assume that sails and oars were used earlier than the oldest archaeological proof, we must assume that only paddle were used for propulsion for open sea passengers in western and northern Europe. There are hardly any first-hand accounts of long-distance traveling or rowing. Therefore, it must remain open what the maximum period for constant rowing and paddling is. Further, it has never been researched how far the progress of boats is influenced by the wind and sea from the coast of Greenland. In the 19th century, pilot gigs crossed over from Cornwall to France for smuggling purposes, but there were not pure rowing boats that they could set sails away. During one trip, they were caught in bad weather and had to row for 30 hours to keep the boat to the head, but this was an emergency and cannot be regarded as normal rowing practice. On the other hand, continuous rowing of 48 hours is recorded during a whale hunt of the coast of Greenland. From Shetland's distances, up to 35 nautical miles are recorded as normal distance for rowing in 1839. Ethnographic evidence from the 19th and 20th century from Fair Island to Shetland give hints for various designed oars and rowing techniques. When the wind came from the side, some boats had the tendency to turn to windward. Therefore, the lee awl was given to the weakest rower to minimize this impact. For rowing a short distance at maximum speed, short oars of 10 feet length were used and the crews put 45 strokes a minute. To proceed over greater distances, longer strokes were preferred. In heavier boats, there was with a greater momentum, the main in the second part of the stroke to maintain this constant speed. When caught in bad weather, the crew put seven long strokes and seven short ones to keep the bow of the vessel head to the sea. There was a realistic assumption that regular speeds of 2 to 3 knots that means about 16 nautical miles and 24 hours can be achieved in good conditions. It also means that already weak current of only 0.5 knots has a great influence on the vessel performance. Sean McRae published this map in his study about cross-channel connections. He argued that the shortest possible road from Calais to Dover was not necessarily the most used one. It was more practical to choose a longer but direct path to places with good connection to other markets or access to the hinterland. For example, from the mouth of the river Rhine to that of the Thames from the mouth of the Sain to the Soland or to the tin mines of Cornwell. Therefore, distances up to 120 to 130 miles had to be covered. Apart from weather conditions, the sailors had to cope with strong tidal currents which changed their direction at least every six hours. It must have been known that the tides were higher and rained stronger during full or new moon and lower and weaker during half moon even if the reasons for this were not yet understood. This was also known to the Romans when they crossed the channel during Caesar's campaign to Britain. At the tide of the time changes for about one hour every day some knowledge of time is also necessary. This can be calculated by the position of time and that of stars at night. But both were not possible when the skies were overcast. Just to give you the impression of the complexity of tidal navigation to cross the peninsula first here's a description from 1926 quote, bound from Lunghob before Lunghob or Scupperflow from southward with a wind from the north-north-east round west to south-east a yacht made past Danskeby Head at any time during four hours of sailing. Stand well over to Mucklescary to counteract the westerly set then sail with a fair tide up the west coast of South Roninsey. Remember the tide will be sweeping across the entrance of Hoxer Sound until the last quarter of the air when it begins to set north into Scupperflow and into the Swither Sound. If the vessel being unable to reach the north-going stream west of South Roninsey is carried to the by the tide to walk the outer sound of Swona sorry difficult and wait for five and a half hours after high watered over when the tide will be setting into Hoxer Sound quote end. Another problem concerns the navigation without instrument when no land is visible. This happens not only in misty weather or because of rain in northern waters but also in the Mediterranean in summer when the visibility is reduced by haze due to the evaporation of water. The Polynesians have developed the highest standard of navigation without any instrument. Of course the techniques like the deflection of oceans for swells by island cannot be transferred to other areas but similar method can be observed. The fishermen in the Shetlands used a current to find their home port in bad visibility quote. Many old men could steer for land in dense fog by following the mortar deer a current running toward the land making slight undulations on the surface of the sea. In a breeze the shore going waves could even be discerned better quote. The sailors trading in the 19th century between Copenhagen and the German coast up to the mouth of the river Oda used several methods quote. They got a bucket of water to taste the approaches of the river Pena and Lim. They knew the land wind of the beachwood of Darset subnets smelled different from that one of Hiddensee or Witteau. Further they knew the samples of soundings between Öresund and the Wutterbach quote. Finding the position with the help of the depth of the water and the samples from the sea floor was widely spread up to the 20th century. It was already mentioned by Herodot who wrote that when black mark was found in the depth of 11 pheasants the mouth of the Nile was one day away. Steering during the day in good weather could be done by the sun in northern waters where it doesn't rise so high and has a longer way around the horizon. At night stars could be used but it must kept in mind that at nights in summer in the north are very short and several stars are not clearly visible when the moon is shining. Usually polaris is given the most important role for orientation at night but it must be remembered from the present position at the pole. Therefore the azimuth of raising or setting stars is more reliable. At the time for this is changing for four minutes every day it means that a star that could be used in spring was not visible in autumn or the other way around. Of course no heavenly body could be used in cloudy weather. Or travels before the introduction of steamers were very dangerous and much influenced by weather conditions. Long wait for the right wind as well as long passengers due to calm or headwinds. For example a passage from Greifswald to Putbus lasted more than 24 hours in 1819 where the return voyage took only 6 hours. Further ships ran at ground and were lost in heavy weather. Remember that Apostle Paulus was shipwrecked three times and all think of the 25 boats were set out of Iceland to colonize Greenland in 986 AD and only 14 of them arrived. Perhaps long offshore passengers were only conducted a couple of times a year when it was considered safe to rid the crossing of the open sea. But certainly the Nessensate knowledge was awaitable even as several methods are not known to us today. Thank you very much.