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Throughout human history, different cultures have used boats for transportation, commerce, and warfare. Explore a few examples of the different boats we've used. Roman Galley An 18th-century engraving of a Roman warship The Mediterranean region was one of the first centers of sea commerce as Greek, and then Roman, “galleys” traveled between ports in Europe, Africa, and Asia. The ships were propelled at high speeds by dozens of oarsmen working in unison. With these ships, sails were a secondary form of power. Galleys were used to transport people and goods and were an important instrument of war. In this illustration, the Roman warship pictured has a corvus mounted to its bow. This crane-like machine  was used to damage enemy ships or to lock them to the Roman ship so that Roman soldiers could board them and engage in hand-to-hand combat. Viking Fleet A painting by Edward Moran  This painting depict

Chinese Admiral in the Indian Ocean In the early 1400s, Zheng He led the largest ships in the world on seven voyages of exploration to the lands around the Indian Ocean, demonstrating Chinese excellence at shipbuilding and navigation. Background Zheng He (pronounced jung ha) was born in 1371 in Yunnan, in the foothills of the Himalaya Mountains, 6,000 feet (not quite 2,000 meters) above sea level and two months’ journey to the nearest seaport. As a child Zheng He was named Ma He. Ma He’s father, a minor official in the Mongol Empire, was not Mongol; his ancestors were Persian Muslims. Both Ma He’s father and his grandfather even made the “hajj,” or pilgrimage to Mecca. The Mongols had controlled the Silk Road routes across Central Asia from roughly 1250 to 1350, and ruled China for much of that time too, but the empire then splintered into a number of smaller khanates, each ruled by a different khan. The resulting anarchy and warfare on