Lesson video

Hello there and welcome to today's history lesson.

I'm Mr. Knox.

I'm really passionate about history, and I'm also really looking forward to teaching you.

With you today, you need to bring your looking eyes, your listening ears, and your thinking brains.

As well as that, having something to write with and write on, and someone or something to talk to would also be really helpful.

All right then, let's get straight into today's history lesson.

In this history lesson, we're going to be looking at seafaring 450 years ago.

By seafaring, I mean regularly travelling by sea or ocean, so travelling on the water.

Our outcome will be, I can describe how European seafarers sailed at the time of William Adams. So we're going to be looking at people that regularly travelled by sea from the European continent at the time of the English explorer and seafarer, William Adams. William Adams was the first Englishman to visit and live in Japan.

He took a very long journey to get there.

So here are some keywords related to seafaring that we need to learn and keep an eye out for today.

My turn, your turn.

Rigging, astrolabe, and lead line.

So these are all key features of seafaring around 450 years ago.

A ship's sails are held up and controlled by ropes known as rigging.

The type of boats and ships that we are going to be looking at would have had sails.

And therefore, to control the sails, rigging would have been used.

An astrolabe.

Sailors used a tool called an astrolabe to work out how far north or south they were.

This was a really innovative invention that sailors could use to look up at the stars and the sun to figure out their position.

And a lead line is a length of rope with a piece of lead attached to it.

Lead is a type of heavy metal.

This lead line was used to measure the depth of water.

This would mean that sailors knew where they could and couldn't sail, so that their ships would not run aground or crash.

So keep an eye out for these keywords in today's learning.

They're really key features of seafaring about 450 years ago.

So we are looking at seafaring 450 years ago.

We're going to begin by answering the question, what were boats like 450 years ago? And then in the second learning cycle, we are going to answer the question, how did seafarers navigate 450 years ago? So let's get on with looking at what boats were like 450 years ago.

European seafarers, so people who regularly navigated and travelled by sea, like William Adams, the first Englishman to travel to Japan, knew about the impressive junks that Chinese explorers like Zheng He used.

And so they started to use features of those Chinese ships in their own boats.

We can see here an illustration to the left of a Chinese junk.

There's a large ship that explorers and seafarers, such as the Admiral Zheng He from the Chinese Empire would've sailed on.

We can see then the impact that these Chinese junks had on later European boats, like the one on the right here.

If we look carefully, we can see some similarities in shape in sails.

We're going to be studying these two boats now, and considering their similarities and differences.

So true or false, European seafarers learned from Chinese seafarers.

Brilliant, this is absolutely true.

European seafarers were aware of the Chinese junks, and they were very impressed by them.

Their size, their scale, The fact that they were able to so successfully go on long, monumental journeys, like from China all the way across to Africa, like Zheng He.

Why? European seafarers knew how impressive Chinese junks were.

And so they used the same features on their own ships, and we're going to be looking at some of those features now.

So take some time now to consider these two boats.

We have an illustration of a Chinese junk, like the one used by Zheng He to go on his treasure missions for the Chinese emperor.

We then have an illustration of a European boat, like the one used by William Adams on his epic two-year voyage to reach Japan.

What is the same about these boats? Look at them carefully.

Look at their shape.

Look at their features, Look really, really carefully.

Pause the video, and have a think now.

Brilliant, excellent studying of these images there, team.

I've noticed a few things that are quite similar.

I've noticed some similarities in shape.

I've noticed some similarities in sails.

The fact that I can see some ropes attached to the sails.

I can see some flags on both.

At the back of both, I think I can see what appears to be a rudder, which would've been used for changing direction.

Both of these ships have many large sails.

We can see the shape of the sails might be slightly different at times, but they both have large sails.

These sails would've been attached to mast, those long upright poles going upwards.

These sail would likely have been made out of a cloth or other material, and they would've been used to harness the power of the wind to move the boat forward through the water.

They were both pointed at the front to support it with movement through the water, and then more square shaped at the back.

You can see this in both boats.

They have this shape like this, more pointed at the front, and then square rectangular shaped at the back.

So choose three features that both Chinese junks and European ships had.

Do they have small sales, a pointed front, big sails, or square shaped back? Choose the three correct features that both had now.

Brilliant job, team.

So thinking about those images that we just looked at, those illustrations of both a Chinese junk and a European sailing boat for about 450 years ago, we could see they had large sails, not small sails.

They would've had some main large sails connected to masts using rigging.

They definitely had a pointed front to support with movement through the water.

They had big sails and they had a square-shaped back.

On this square shaped back at the bottom would've been a rudder, which would've helped with changing direction.

So we can see here the influence that the Chinese junks that were sailed by admirals and explorers like Zheng He had on European boats.

So both boats around 450 years ago also had a rudder.

Can you say that for me? Rudder.

This rudder was at the back, and was there to help to change direction.

I wonder if you can spot the rudder on our illustration of a Chinese junk now.

Point to it for me.

Brilliant.

You can see that it is here, the bottom left here of our photograph, off the back of the square, rectangular part of the Chinese junk.

We have a closeup of a shape of a rudder here.

Often made of wood.

This would've been able to move when someone steers, and this would've helped to change the direction more easily of the boat.

Previously, oars would've had to be used by oarsmen to change the direction.

This was far slower.

With rudders, seafarers were able to look down at things like compasses to get their headings, and then quickly make alterations and changes to their directions.

This allowed for far more efficient travel by sea.

So we know that both Chinese junks and European boats during this time 450 years ago both used rudders.

The sails that we've looked at on both Chinese junks and also European boats were held up by a large pole called a mast.

You might have one main mast in the middle that would hold up the main sails and you might have further smaller masts that would have other sails on.

Remember, the sails are very important for harnessing the power of the wind to move the boats.

Can you see the photo of our mast here? It's that main long pole going down like that.

You may notice also lots of ropes here, which links to one of our keywords for today.

My turn, your turn.

Rigging.

Attaching the sails to the mast were lots of ropes called the rigging.

You can see many ropes here.

You could also see some rigging that might have been for climbing as well, so that people could get up to pull the different ropes to either tie or untie the sails.

Pulling the rigging moved the sails.

So a rigging here, the mast, the rigging, and the sails work together to be very important parts of boats 450 years ago.

So sails on boats 450 years ago could be moved by pulling the mast, rigging, or rudder.

Pause the video now and complete the sentence with the correct word.

Off you go.

Brilliant job.

Sails on boats 450 years ago could be moved by pulling the rigging.

The mast was what the sails and the rigging were attached to.

The rudder was used for changing direction, but it was the rigging, those ropes, that could be pulled to control the sails.

So we've looked at some similarities between the boats.

What about some differences? Look carefully at illustrations of a Chinese junk and a European boat now.

What do you notice are different about them? Off you go.

Brilliant job, team.

Well, I've noticed a fair few differences, and I've noticed you've spotted them too.

So the thing that I have noticed is that they often had different numbers and sizes of sails.

If we go back a moment and have a look at our European ship, I can see far more sails in slightly different shapes and also in different sizes.

On my Chinese junk, I can see one main sail in the middle, whereas I can see two sails on our main mast in our European boat.

So the sails were slightly different.

They were performing the same purpose, to harness the power of the wind, but they were different sizes and they had different numbers.

They had different flags and coloured banners flying at the top of the sails as well.

On my Chinese junk, I can see far more flags and banners, and a key difference is that Chinese junks were much larger than European boats of the time.

Chinese junks, remember, like the ones that Zheng He used, were being used to go on treasure missions to bring back gifts for the emperor, and were very, very large.

So choose two differences between Chinese junks and European ships about 450 years ago.

The rudders, the flags, the size.

Choose the two differences now.

fantastic job, team.

Well, both boats have rudders, so this was not a difference.

The rudders were used for the same purpose, for changing the direction.

However, both boats did have different flags and banners, and the size was different.

Chinese junks such as the one that Zheng He would've sailed were far larger than the European boats that say William Adams may have sailed at the time.

So what I'd like you to do now for our practise task is to talk to your learning partner about Chinese junks and European ships.

Tell them one way the ships were the same and one way the ships were different.

Here are some words that might help you.

Rudder, rigging, sails, flags.

Consider everything else that we've looked at to do similarities and differences between these types of boats in this learning cycle.

Tell your partner one similarity and one difference now.

Off you go.

Fantastic job, team.

I loved hearing some of your similarities and differences that you shared there.

You're clearly experts on both European boats and Chinese junks from 450 years ago.

So your answers may have included the ships were the same because they both had a rudder to help change direction, rigging, and large sails.

Remember those sails were used to harness the power of the wind, and the rigging could be pulled to control those sails.

The ships had different size sails and different flags on top.

These were our main differences.

A key difference was also the size of the boats.

Chinese junks tended to be much larger than European boats about 450 years ago.

Great job in spotting those similarities and differences, and it's really fascinating to see the impact and influence that these Chinese junks had on European seafarers.

So we've looked at what boats 450 years ago were like.

Now we're going to consider how seafarers navigated 450 years ago.

To navigate means to find your way successfully from one place to another.

We're now going to look at some of the key features that supported seafarers in navigating.

So here we have an illustration of a compass.

I wonder if you've seen a compass before.

I wonder if you know what compasses are used for.

Zheng He and other Chinese explorers, so people going to new places, new and unfamiliar places, were very good at navigating their ships.

Indeed, they used compasses and were the first seafarers to use compasses.

Navigating means finding the way to go, and compasses allowed seafarers to be far more accurate, and go on far more reliable journeys and find their way successfully.

So about 450 years ago, European seafarers like William Adams also began to use a compass to work out which direction to travel in.

A compass always points to the north.

This is incredibly useful when travelling at sea as it can often be difficult to go in a consistent direction.

If you know where north consistently is, you can then travel in a straight line far more easily and reliably.

A compass made their journeys much, much easier 'cause they knew if they were travelling north, south, east, or west.

True or false, European seafarers did not use a compass 450 years ago.

Brilliant.

This is absolutely false.

European seafarers did use compasses 450 years ago.

The Chinese had used them before them and the Europeans then began to use them.

And why did they use them? Well, Chinese seafarers used a compass first, and later European seafarers also started using a compass.

We know that they use these compasses to support them with navigation, to find their way.

European seafarers also used a tool called one of our key words here, an astrolabe.

Can you say that for me? Astrolabe.

This was to help them navigate, and here we have a photo of an astrolabe.

If you look really carefully, you can see how detailed it is, can't you? I wonder how these astrolabe were used.

Well, an astrolabe was a type of star chart.

We know that as far back as the Vikings, that sailors had used the stars to help them.

Sailors looked at the positions of the sun, moon, and stars in the sky, and they could use this astrolabe and move parts of it to work out how far north or south they were.

Combined with a compass, this was a really useful tool to help them with navigation.

So which two of these tools did seafarers use to navigate 450 years ago? The rudder, the compass, and the astrolabe.

Select the two tools that helped with navigation.

Off you go.

Good job, team.

A rudder wouldn't have been used to help with navigation.

A rudder was used to help steer the ship and change its direction.

The compass and astrolabe though were both tools that could be used to help with finding your way.

Remember, the compass would always point north so you could get your bearings and headings, and consistently go in a straight line.

And an astrolabe lab would help sailors to work out where they were in relation to north and south.

Combined with the rudder, which meant that the boat could more easily change direction than using oars as had previously be used, it meant that seafarers about 450 years ago were able to have far more reliable journeys and find their way.

Here is the final tool that we are going to be looking at that sailors would use to help.

About 450 years ago, seafarers like William Adams who went on that epic two-year journey from Europe all the way to Japan and Asia knew that water needed to be deep enough to travel through, otherwise their boats would get stuck, and so they would use something called a, my turn, your turn, lead line.

Here we have an illustration of a lead line.

I noticed that it looks like a piece of rope with something hooked and attached to the bottom.

They use ropes that were called lead lines to work out how deep the water was.

These were made from a heavy block of lead, which is a type of metal which is attached to a long rope.

You would then throw the rope with the piece of lead attached over the side of your ship.

It would sink and sink and sink until it hit the bottom of the sea or ocean.

They would drop the rope in then until they felt it hit the bottom.

They would then measure the rope to see how deep the water was.

This was incredibly useful as seafarers needed to know how deep the water was to know if they could travel there or not.

Otherwise, their ships and boats might crash or become grounded.

So European seafarers use lead lines to measure how, mm, the water was.

How blue, deep, or salty.

Put the correct word in and say the sentence.

Off you go.

Great job, team.

European seafarers use lead lines to measure how deep the water was, not its colour or how salty.

They were using lead lines to find how deep it was.

Remember they would throw that rope with that heavy piece of lead attached to it.

When it hit the sea or ocean floor, they would then know how deep it was, and they would know if they could travel there or not.

So what I'd like us to do now for our practise task is to read the sentences and decide which tool they're describing.

Tick the correct column for each sentence.

Is the sentence describing the astrolabe or the lead line? These incredibly useful tools that seafarers 450 years ago used.

Read the sentences now, decide whether they're describing the astrolabe or lead line.

Off you go.

Excellent job.

You are clearly now experts on tools that seafarers 450 years ago used.

Seafarers used this to measure how deep the water was.

This describes that lead line.

Seafarers used this to line up the stars in the night sky and figure out the position of north and south.

This was the astrolabe.

This was made of a heavy metal called lead.

A piece of rope and lead is our lead line.

It's in the name.

And this was used to work out how far north or south the seafarers were.

This was our astrolabe lab.

Did you manage to get the correct answers there? Check now and make any corrections.

It's been really fascinating, looking at seafaring 450 years ago today.

About 450 years ago, European sail sailboats were built with features similar to Chinese junks.

They had a rudder to help with steering and many large sails to catch the wind.

The sails of the boat were controlled by putting on ropes called rigging.

About 450 years ago, seafarers like William Adams began to use a compass and an astrolabe to navigate Seafarers, like William Adams, used lead lines to work out how deep the water was under their boats and to note if they could sail there or not.

Keep up the great history learning and I'll see you again soon.