Learning to love the sea

IVERPOOL Bay and the Mersey estuary enjoy coastal features from towering dunes and docks to promenades and sandbanks.

- Stephen Guy

While fishing boats and merchant ships ventured offshore, many of our ancestors regarded the sea with dread.

Whalers searched the seas for prey, while cargo ships took perilous voyages to distant lands in search of profit.

At one time, people feared that ships would tumble to oblivion once they reached the horizon. It took courageous captains and crews to sail into the unknown.

The spread of knowledge and leisure changed our coasts. From the 18th century, the sea ceased to be widely feared. Intrepid explorers demonstrated there were lands beyond coastal waters and the horizon.

Liverpool benefitted from the growth of empire and world trade. The construction of the Old Dock in 1715 signalled a change in cargo handling which spread worldwide.