Ancestors still live by fishing, hunting and gathering, and their activities are limited to areas near water. But because they don't have certain tools, they can't fish in deep water or hunt wild animals on the other side of the river. Not only that, in case of flood, they can't even save their lives.

The harsh environment and survival instinct forced human beings to think, and people began to seek a tool that can float on the water in order to hunt more food and overcome the harm of floods.

The long-term struggle with nature has continuously increased people's wisdom, and the repeated appearance of natural phenomena has also given people some enlightenment.

"When the ancients saw the fallen leaves, they thought they were boats" (Shiben), "When the ancients saw the driftwood, they knew their boats" ("Huainanzi said mountain training"). The ancients finally realized that some objects were floating, and natural floating objects became the earliest inducement for people to create boats.

After long-term practice, the ancients created the earliest water transport-raft, which is a flat object tied together side by side with trunk or bamboo.

Primitive people realized in practice that although a single bamboo is buoyant, it is easy to roll in water because of its round shape, narrow area and limited bearing capacity. If several bamboo and wood are tied together, they can float smoothly in the water and increase the carrying capacity, which can carry both goods and people.

After the raft was made of wood, there was the Wooden Boat (Book of Changes). "Cuo" means cutting and hollowing out, and "boat" refers to the direct ancestor of ancient ships-canoe.

2. Ancient paddle boat

Later, people began to install many paddles on ships to provide power for them, so that they didn't have to go with the flow, which was convenient for control and safer.

3. Ancient ocean-going sailboats

With the development of science and technology and greedy desire, people began to explore the ocean. Technically, the sailboats used by explorers are much more advanced than the previous manpower multi-paddle boats.

It is equipped with a tall mast, and a large area of canvas is hung on the mast, so that the wind energy at sea can be used to the maximum extent. Compared with previous ships, this ship is faster, bigger, stronger and more comfortable to live in. A large number of cannons were placed on it, which made it more aggressive.

4. Modern ships

As people step into the industrial age, a vigorous industrial revolution has begun. After years of research and extensive absorption of predecessors' experience, Englishman Watt made a reliable steam engine and put it into use. At that time, there was an American named Fulton. He thought rowing with paddles would be very tiring and inefficient.

So he wants to use paddles instead of paddles. Drive a ship with a steam engine. And successfully tried on the Hudson River at 1870. This is the prototype of this ship.

1835, an Englishman Smith built a model ship with a propeller, which attracted the attention of shipbuilding experts. It is found that as the propeller of a ship, the propeller is more powerful than the paddle wheel. So the ship was gradually withdrawn from use. But for convenience, a boat with a propeller is still called a boat.

5. Modern ships

With the development of mankind, modern ships no longer use sails to assist navigation, nor steam engines that will seriously pollute the environment and have low efficiency, but diesel engines. This is an important milestone in the history of ship development.

Modern ships are not only equipped with efficient diesel engines, but also with advanced equipment such as radar, sonar and radio, which makes ocean navigation safer.

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