481

1 INTRODUCTION

Everysailor,atthebackofhisorhermind,isaware

that the nearest land is likelytobedirectly beneath

theship’skeeland,asaresult,heorsheisinterested

to know just how near. This information has been

readilyavailabletomarinersforma

nyyears.Itcanbe

foundbyplottingapositiononachartwheredepths

arerecordedorbydirectmeasurementusinganecho

sounder.

Inancienttimes,chartswerevirtuallynon‐existent

but the depth of water could be measured by a

sounding lead and line or, in shallow water, by

soundingrods.Seefigures1and2.

Somewhatlat

er,thebaseoftheweightwasmade

hollowtoacceptaplugoftalloworasimilarmaterial

so that a sample of the river or sea‐bed could be

recovered. A sounding in deep water has a more

generalusetha

nsimplyavoidingstranding.Together

with knowledge of the nature of the sea‐bed, it

provides clues to a ship’s position and, it therefore,

hasrealnavigationalsignificance.

The first record of this use was by Herodotus in

the Fourth Century BC who wrote that, when

approachingtheNileestuaryfromseaward,adepth

of eleven fat

homs, with a bottom sample of yellow

mud, indicated that the ship would be a day’s sail

fromAlexandria.

The lead and line were certainly used in the

MediterraneanSeaduringRomantimes,asdescribed

in the Biblical account of St Paul’s shipwreck which

took pla

ceinabout60 AD. When the sailors sensed

thatlandwasnear,theydroppedalineandmeasured

20fathoms.Alittlefurtheron,theydroppedtheline

again and found 15 fathoms. They then threw out

anchorsfromthesterntopreventstrandingonthelee

shore.Inthemorning,theycuttheanchorropesand

the ship was blown towa

rds the shore where it

groundedonasand‐bank.

The Use of the Lead and Line by Early Navigators in

the North Sea?

.Kemp

TheRoyalInstituteofNavigation,London,UK

ABSTRACT:ThispaperdrawsattentiontothelackofinformationastohowearlyNorthSeasailorsnavigated,

particularlyduringtheonethousandyearperiodthatfollowedRomantimes.Theleadandlinewastheonly

navigationalaidavailableformostofthisperiod,butthereisl

ittlerecordedastowhetheritwasusedsimply

forensuringashiporboathadenoughwatertoproceedorwhether,togetherwiththeknowledgeitprovided

ofthenatureofthesea bed,itwasusedasamorepositivepositionfixingdevice.Theauthorwoulda

ppreciate

anyinformationrelatingtonavigationtechniquesusedduringthisperiod.

http://www.transnav.eu

the International Journal

on Marine Navigation

and Safety of Sea Transportation

Volume 8

Number 4

December 2014

DOI:10.12716/1001.08.04.01

482



Figure1.UseofasoundingrodonanEgyptianship,c.1250BC



Figure2.AtombmodelofanEgyptianboatfromc.2000BC



2 EARLYNORTHSEANAVIGATORS

Thereisnodoubtthattheleadandlinewasauseful

navigation tool for Mediterranean sailors (see

Oleson

). It might well have been developed

independentlybysailorsintheNorthSeabut,inany

case, it would surely have been introduced in that

area as the Roman empire expanded towards the

North‐Westand,eventuallyincludedBritain.Strabo



describesshipsusedbytheVeneti,atribewhichlived

inwhatisnowNorth‐West France. These ships had

sails and were built of oak, and they had anchor

cables of iron chain. The Veneti regularly sailed to

Britainand,althoughthereisnorecordastowhether

they

used lead and line, it seems unlikely that they

did not, especially after their contact with the

Romans.

If the lead and line were useful to the

Mediterraneansailors wheremuchofthecoastlineis

steep‐to, with deep water close to the land, and

visibility is generally good, then how

 much more

useful it must have been to early sailors in the

Southern North Sea. There, the coastlines are

generallylow,withfewdistinguishingfeatures.There

aremanyoffshoreshoalsandvisibilityisoftenpoor.

Finally,therearethetideswhich,notonlychangethe

depthofwater,butalso

generatetidalstreamswhose

rate is similar to the speed at which ancient boats

couldbesailedorrowed.

Inthiscontext,itshouldbenotedthatanchorshad

additionalusesintheNorthSeaascomparedwiththe

Mediterranean so that boats could ride out the six

hours of an

 averse tide rather than attempting the

fruitlesstaskofrowingorsailingagainstit.Anchors

werealsoneededtosafelykedgeoffabeachorsand‐

bank on a rising tide after a boat had deliberately

takenthegroundtoloadordischarge passengersor

cargo.

Even before the Romans

left North‐West Europe,

there were movements of the northern European

tribes towards the west, and some as far as Britain.

Forexample,Pye

3

tellsusthattheRomansinBritain

appointedaCountoftheSaxonShore.AstheRoman

grip weakened, the North Sea became the route by

whichSaxons(fromwhatisnowNorthernGermany),

Angles (from what is now Southern Denmark) and

Jutes(fromwhatisnowNorthernDenmark)migrated

483

towards the west, with many reaching as far as

Britain.However,itwastheFrisianswhobecamethe

most important traders in the North Sea (Pye

) as

theirbaseexpandedfromtheRhineDeltaasfareast

as the Weser. By 600 AD they had achieved a near

monopolyoftradingintheareaandtheymaintained

thisuntilthecomingoftheVikingsinaround800AD.

Amongst historians, there is some disagreement

betweenthose

whobelievetheearlySouthernNorth

Sea mariners followed the coastline and others who

believesome,atleast,struckoutmoredirectlyacross

the open sea. For example, Crumlin‐Pedersen

4

suggeststhat“Rowingtechniquesdidnotchangethe

fact that navigation was still based on landing or

mooringoffshoreeverynight:exceptforthecrossing

of straits. Thus, all movements from Jutlandto

Britainwereboundtobealongthecoastal regionsof

Lower Saxony and the Netherlands” He also notes



that“Itwaspossibletorowinshelteredwatersalmost

allthewayfromtheWestCoastofJutlandatEsbjerg

totheentrancetothechannel,EastofCalais.” Other

historians,e.g.Pye

suggestthatitwasactuallysafer

to make the crossings in the open sea, away from

shoals and strong tidal streams, a view which the

authorbelievesmostsailorswouldagreewith.

Whatever the case, the lead and line would, by

default,havebeenthemostvaluableaidtonavigation

availabletothoseearlyNorthSeanavigators.

From around 800 AD, the Vikings became the

dominantforceontheNorthSea,due,inlargepart,to

the superior design of their ships and the fighting

prowess of their  warriors. Their home waters in the

NorthernpartoftheNorthSea,where

coastlineswere

steep and offshore depths of water much greater,

meant that they needed navigation methods in

addition to the lead and line.  They almost certainly

usedtheSunandthePoleStarforestimatinglatitude

aswellasforindicatingdirection.Itislikelythatthe

SouthernNorthSea

sailorswouldalsohaveusedthe

sunandstarsforsettingandholdinganapproximate

course,buttheVikingsappeartohavealsodeveloped

a sun‐compass  for more precise measurement of

direction(seeThirslund

).Priortothisdevelopment,

the lead and line had been the only navigation aid

thathadbeenrecordedanywhereintheworld.

Although the Vikings possessed considerable

expertise in deep‐sea navigation, they would also

have had to rely on the lead and line when

approaching the wide, shallow and

 shoal strewn

estuariesoftheSouthernNorthSea.However,aswith

theFrisiansbeforethemthe authorhasbeenableto

find little record of their actual techniques. The

introduction of the magnetic compass in the 13



Century made life easier for sailors, but it provided

information that complemented the lead and line

withoutreplacingit.

Following the Viking period, the ships of the

HanseaticLeaguebecame the principalactorsinthe

NorthSeaandBalticSeatrades.TheLeagueremained

inbusinessfromthe14

Centuryuntil17

Century.It

wasformedbythegettingtogetherofthecommercial

maritime interests of a diverse group of cities. It

developedrulesandregulationsforthegreatergood

of its members and, in some cases, despite many

internal disputes, it wielded greater power than

sovereignstatesofthetime.Clearly,

intheinterestsof

profitabletrade,itwasnecessaryforshipstonavigate

safely on their voyages. However, the author has

foundnorecordsofhowthepre‐eminentnavigation

aid,thelogandline,wasusedinpractice.

3 CONCLUSIONS

From the 17

 Century, onwards, seamen became

more literate and navigation became more scientific

although it has to be said that the lead and line

continued to receive less attention in the literature

thanwasitsdue.Soundingandfindingone’swayby

measuring the depth of water and sampling the

natureof

theseabedwassomethingthatsailorsdid

as a matter of routine and it was not thought to be

worthwritingabout.In1883,MarkTwain,belatedly

attempted to put this right in his book “Life on the

Mississippi.” More to the point, for the purposes of

this paper, was

 an illuminating article in the UK

Journal of Navigation, in which Lt. Cdr Cooper



described how, in 1937, as a young boy, he

accompaniedhisfishing‐skipperfatherashetookhis

trawlertoaNorthSeafishingground,fishedfortwo

days, and returned to port. During this time he

consultednochartsandnavigatedexclusivelybylead

andline,althoughechosounders

hadbeenavailable

from the nineteen twenties. Courses were set my

magneticcompass,readingpointsandquarter‐points.

Theleadwascastathalf‐hourlyintervalsandthesea

bedsamplewasexaminedvisuallyandbytaste.

Theleadandlinehasneverhadtheglamourofthe

astrolabe and sextant

 but, in the grey, misty  North

Sea, with dangerous shoals off low lying and

featurelessestuaries,theleadandlinemusthaveonce

beenking, aided by the prodigious memories of the

seamen. In an area  with significant tidal range, the

nature of the sea bed, and even its taste,

was often

considered to be more important navigational

informationthanthedepthofwater.

The author has in mind to produce a more

definitive paper on the navigational use of the lead

andlinethroughtheages,andespeciallyinmedieva l

times from around 400 to 1400 AD, but records are



relativelyfew.Ifany readers canpointhimtowards

usefulsources,hewouldbemostgrateful.

REFERENCES

[1]Olesen,JohnPeter.(2008)Testing the Waters: The Roleof

SoundingWeightsinAncientMediterraneanNavigation.In

Vol. 6, The Maritime World of Ancient Rome, pp 119‐

116.PublishedbyMemoirsoftheAmericanAcademyin

Rome.

[2]Strabo. (20 AD) Geography – Book IV, Chapter 4,

paragraph1

[3]Pye,Michael(2014)TheEdgeoftheWorld.HowtheNorth

Seamadeuswhoweare.VikingPress.

[4]CrumlinPedersen,Ole(1990) The Boats and Ships of the

AnglesandJutes,inMaritimeCelts,FrisiansandSaxons,

SeanMcGrail,Ed.CouncilforBritishArchaeology

[5]Thirslund,Søren.(2007)

VikingNavigation.Roskilde.

[6]Cooper, R W (2010) Heaving the Lead. The Journal of

Navigation., Vol 63, pp 183‐186.  Royal Institute of

Navigation,London.