Ancient Ships on American Shores

Adele Ashby was the former editor of Canadian Materials for Schools and Libraries.

I remember my grade 8 Canadian history textbook. In a couple of sentences, it disposed of all contact with North America prior to the arrival of Carrier and company. The rest of the text seemed so certain, so clear about the “facts”; but those short sentences raised for me the possibility that at least some if not all history is less certain that itseemed to be. How I wish I had had Ancient Ships then.

As Michael Custode makes clear in his introduction, much of the information in the book is in dispute. He presents itso that readers can make up their own minds. He offers evidence of possible contact by Africans, Phoenicians, Chinese, and Vikings, taken from legends, written documents, and archaeology in their cultures and those of Native peoples, reaching back as far as 5000 years ago. The text is amplified by double-page illustrations, showing, for example, a Chinese junk approaching the shores of British Columbia in 500 A.D. The final chapter tells of Columbus, who despite three voyages to America, never understood that he had not reached the Far East. There is a bibliography for further reading.

Ancient Ships is a valuable contribution to Canadian history for young people, if only because it helps to dispel the certainty with which ittends to be served up to this audience.