Ship-building and Navigation in the Indian Ocean Region AD 1400-1800

Several historians have started turning their attention on the various aspects of maritime history such as maritime trade, coastal society, tensions on board, naval design and architecture, naval hygiene and so on. Similarly, those interested in the history of science and technology too have begun working on the technology of ship-building and navigation. Against this backdrop, the present work, comprising a number of studies conducted by a batch of active researchers on different aspects of ship-building and navigation, deals with the coastal centres of Beypur, Konkan region, Coromandel Coast and Orissa known as the homes of expert shipwrights. The contributors unearth a store of new material on timber traditions, use of masts, indigenous and European systems of navigation in the Indian Ocean region for the knowledge of scholars interested in working in this field. It is one of pioneering contributions in the study of the technology of ship-building and navigation that can inspire a number of scholars. The current oral traditions regarding the navigation are also collected and brought to the light by the scholars in this work.