With over two-thirds of the globe covered by water, the ability to navigate safely & quickly across the oceans has been crucial throughout human history. As seafarers attempted longer & longer voyages from the sixteenth century onwards in search of profit & new lands, the tools of navigation became ever more sophisticated. The development of instruments over the last five hundred years has seen some revolutionary changes, spurred on by the threat of disaster at sea & the possibility of huge rewards from successful voyages. As this book shows, the solution of the infamous longitude problem, the extraordinary impact of satellite positioning & other advances in navigation have successfully brought together seafarers, artisans & scientists in search of better ways of getting from A to B & back again.