Resumen de Dangers at sea and helps to sailors for overcoming them in the past
In our days, sailing has become much less dangerous than it had been since the origins up to, more or less, a century ago. Of course, sea and weather conditions are always the proper of such elements, so we can say that they haven’t changed along the time. Safety on board began to improve, as it is perfectly known, by the ship herself, with the use of magnetic compass, in the 13th century, but the great advance had been provided by the mechanic systems of propulsion and later by the huge quantity of instruments and devices used as electronic means of navigation which are now present in the bridge of every ship. In this sense, letting apart the magnetic compass, we can say that safety was initiated by the decline of the sail, that it is to say when the use of steam machines on board began and, at the beginning of last century, by the radio goniometer. Later, the radar was a wonderful help. Electronic devices rapidly improved up to became the modern GPS (Ground Positioning System) which gives, amongst other data, the exact coordinates of a ship at sea, instantly and all over the day, with a margin of error of a few metres.
As we know, when ships used sails, their capacity of steering was really poor in bad weather and they could be unable to support it. Then, the only possibility of being saved was by the help of an external force, a force provided mainly by the faith or beliefs of the crew in a celestial divinity.
So, in this paper I will intend to explain the divinities and the ways used by seamen along the time to obtain their favours.
