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Modern navigators accept without wonder tools that would have been inconceivable to earlier generations.  How would you explain GPS (Global Positioning System) to Captain Christopher Jones of the Mayflower?  Would he have understood – or even believed in the possibility of – a small electronic device that receives data on the relative position of dozens of satellites, uses signals that are transmitted from these satellites to chart the precise time (via an atomic clock), performs innumerable mathematical equations almost instantaneously and – voila! - determines the precise location of a vessel?

Imagine, now, that the year is 1620.  There is no Global Positioning System.  How would YOU determine the position of the Mayflower at sea?  And, without knowing where the Mayflower was located, would you be able to bring her safely to shore?

The Mayflower had no electronic devices or satellites or atomic clocks.  It was not, however, entirely “at sea.”  

Many navigational tools - all aimed at identifying a ship’s current position – had been developed over the centuries.  By modern standards, they were crude and unreliable.  These navigational tools, however, enabled the skillful and intrepid mariners of the 17^th century to explore the Atlantic, to discover new continents, to establish and maintain communication with colonies in these new lands.  

The most basic of these navigational tools can still be found in a modern sporting goods store.