The naval shipworm helped bring about the Industrial Revolution
> References in Greek texts from the 4th century BC are IMO suggestive of early voyages to the coast of West Africa, the nearest navigable mangrove forests (unless shipworm managed to somehow get carried across the Sinai isthmus)<p>Simon Winchester discusses how Cape Bojador [1] was impassible until 1443 (in his book <i>Atlantic</i> [2]) so it is unlikely that early voyages reached any further south along the coast of West Africa. During Roman times there were indeed canals to the Red Sea [3] and a robust international trade system as outlined in the <i>Periplus of the Erythraean Sea</i> [4].<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Bojador" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Bojador</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.simonwinchester.com/atlantic" rel="nofollow">http://www.simonwinchester.com/atlantic</a><p>[3] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_of_the_Pharaohs" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canal_of_the_Pharaohs</a><p>[4] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periplus_of_the_Erythraean_Sea" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Periplus_of_the_Erythraean_Sea</a>