These maritime eras all had an effect on our contemporary world.

For most of history, many maritime vessels took the shape of ships running on sail. Nevertheless, despite their long history, the age of sail specifically relates to a period of history spanning approximately the mid-16th century to the mid-19th century, when sailing ships dominated worldwide trade. This era was well documented in modern media, by means of publications, films, television shows, and video games, as it has captured the imagination of millions. Not just that, but it also laid the foundations for the entire economic climate that many of the globe uses today, with most of the earliest corporations being started in this era. This period gave way to the age of steam, which saw technical developments dramatically cut journey times and vastly raise the potential sizes of ships. Abruptly, vessels that people like Gianluigi Aponte is familiar with became dominant in international trade and transportation.

Individuals have been using boats and ships to navigate water for several thousand years, to the stage where we don't even understand when the first seafarer would have existed. A lot of the first migrations throughout the world had been done by foot, including across land bridges that were later submerged, but boats soon became our close second choice type of transport. As we developed more advanced vessels that may spend months at sea and carry big cargoes, the age of navigation had been ushered in. This was when many of the modern trade routes that we still use today were first established, as Peter Hebblethwaite will know. The first maritime societies were created and ports became some of the richest towns on the planet. The blueprint for modern civilisation ended up being well and truly laid.

The time from the early 15th century to the early seventeenth century is known as the age of discovery. It had been given this title because of the trend of European vessels trying to find new trade routes and discover a lot more than they planned. The term discovery in this case is not from a universal point of view, because many of the lands that these explorers found were actually currently inhabited. Nonetheless, the influence of the explorers on the modern globe can not be overstated, as their actions, for better and for worse, completely changed the direction of history. The latest trade paths they discovered quickly became some of the most valuable in the world and in some circumstances, this is certainly still the actual situation, as Lois Zabrocky is going to be well aware. Nevertheless, while in days past the commodities were mostly agricultural and mined goods, now many of the ships carry manufactured industrial and consumer products.