Study Guides

Unit Summary

This unit on explorers and seafaring gives students a clear sense of change over time, highlighting technological, economic, and cultural shifts. It covers the sea's role in trade and exploration and explores material culture, craftsmanship, and the influence of seafaring on language and art.

Lesson Summary

You will learn to explain how Turner's painting 'The Fighting Temeraire' shows an important change in seafaring from sail power to steam power.

Key Notes

• 150 years ago, steam power was replacing sail power for ships.
• Wooden-hulled ships, which had been used for thousands of years, were being replaced by iron-hulled ones.
• JMW Turner's painting, The Fighting Temeraire, is symbolic of this process, showing the final journey of the Temeraire.
• The Temeraire, an old ship used in important battles, is being towed by a steam boat on its way to be broken up.
• It is unlikely that Turner witnessed this event, but he has imagined it to make the point that seafaring was changing.

Vocabulary To Learn

• steam power: something uses steam power when it uses a steam engine to heat water to create steam and movement
• witness: if someone is present at an event, they witness it

Common Mistakes To Avoid

• Some may think that the ship was called 'The Fighting Temeraire'.

3 Quick Questions (With Answers)

More Lessons In This Unit

• Brunel's race to cross the Atlantic Study Guide
• Chinese innovation in seafaring Study Guide
• Early explorers and their boats Study Guide
• How Polynesian explorers travelled and navigated Study Guide
• John Cabot's journeys across the Atlantic Study Guide
• Life aboard the SS Great Britain Study Guide
• Seafaring 550 years ago Study Guide
• Seafaring in the early Mediterranean world Study Guide
• The incredible voyages of Zheng He Study Guide
• The Vikings and their longboats Study Guide
• Viking navigation and expansion Study Guide