How Shipping Got Faster

Cargo shipping might seem like a relatively recent phenomenon, but the truth is we've been shipping items from one place to another for thousands of years. Shipping hasn't so much been a modern revolution, but a modern evolution - getting quicker and more efficient over the decades.

The earliest account we have is from rock drawings in Azerbaijan, dated to 10,000 BC. These drawing depict the use of watercraft, which by 8,000 BC had evolved into canoes (the earliest example we know of being the Pesse Canoe.

Skip forward to 4,000 BC, and we have the first papyrus boats made by the Egyptians, which were being used to transport up to 500 tons of stone by 2,500 BC. The Egyptians would be the main shipping civilisation for decades, until 700 AD when the Viking longships bought trade from Northern Europe to the UK.

This new infographic from ShipIt shows the continued evolution of the speed of shipping: