Boats have been around since the time of the earliest peoples. Boats let them cross wide rivers and fish in deep waters. Soon, people began to explore distant lands. They found ways to make larger and stronger boats.
Around A.D. 1000, Viking explorers from Norway, Sweden, and Denmark sailed to North America. Their wooden boats were the size of today’s mobile homes. The crossing was dangerous. Thousands died because of icebergs, storms, poor navigational tools, and unreliable winds. Disease and unsanitary conditions were problems, too.
By the late 1800s, people were crossing the Atlantic on ships. Ships are very big boats that go to sea. They were powered by steam, not wind. They were made of metal, not wood. Shipping companies began building giant ocean liners. In the early 1900s, the White Star Line was racing with rivals to build even bigger, better ships. In 1912, after three years of construction, the company had the largest moving object in the world. It was the Titanic!
