History Main / BornUnderTheSail

* ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'': The Nautilus Pirates are more or less a faction of old-school Earth {{Pirate}}s that were RecycledInSpace. They start the game with a number of sea-related bonuses, including the technology to build aquatic bases. Their agenda is even listed as "pillage and burn".

* The Warao people of Venezuela are this by necessity, due to mostly living in river deltas. Comparisons to Venice are not unwarranted. One of the worst things you can say about a Warao man is that he has no canoe.

* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': The Belerid [[SpaceElves Loroi]] of Taben, living on a dwarf, icy continent in an [[SingleBiomePlanet ocean world]] where violent weather made farming difficult and most food was in the sea, developed a proudly maritime culture focused on fishing, whaling, exploration, trade, and piracy. The modern Tenoin caste, which consists of the Loroi forces' spaceship crews and navigators, has its origins on Taben and still maintains training facilities in Beleri.

** Japan subverts this in that, despite being an island nation, it actually was ''not'' very good at shipbuilding and naval warfare for most of its national history; it was simply too far away from everyone else in the world to make it worthwhile, most of the seafood was close to shore, and the islands weren't far enough away from one another to demand significant navigational skills to reach. The one conspicuous time that the Japanese ''did'' invade mainland Asia, in the 1590s, they were crushed at sea by the Koreans... who ironically did fit this trope at the time. Double subverted in that after industrialization and modernization, the Japanese did rapidly become one of the top and most feared naval powers on Earth.

%%** The Dutch, particularly during their 17th century Golden Age.
%%** The Spanish.

%%** Pre-modern Korea.
%%** The Portuguese.

* The United States, following in the example of the British Empire, would grow to be a major merchant and naval power throughout the 19th century. A major driving factor for most examples of the US getting involved in major overseas conflicts throughout its history at least until the outset of the Cold War were disruptions to its overseas trade and merchant marine, examples including the Barbary Wars, Quasi-War with France (extension of the Wars of French Revolution), the War of 1812 (extension of the Napoleonic Wars), World War I, and World War II.

** The Norscans are naturally good at sailing (being the HeavyMetal version of HornyVikings), repeatedly raiding the equivalents of Europe and Canada. [[Literature/{{Wulfrik}} Wulfrik the Wanderer]] even has a flying longship that can go through the Warp and emerge anywhere he wants it to, leading to his moniker of "the Inescapable One".

* Colonial New England

* The ''Franchise/DragonAge'' series has two nations that are almost synonymous with sailing: Antiva and Rivain. Antiva is a coastal nation that operates a huge merchant fleet, while Rivain is located entirely on a huge peninsula and is best known for their sea smugglers and pirates. Sailing is their hat to such a degree that in the [[TabletopGame/DragonAge pen-and-paper adaptation]], "wayfarer" and "merchant" are basically the only [[MultipleChoicePast backgrounds]] available to Antivan and Rivaini [=PCs=], respectively.

** The Dutch, particularly during their 17th century Golden Age.
** The Spanish
** The French

** Pre-modern Korea
** The Portuguese
** The medieval Catalans

* ''Literature/TheCrocodileGod'': As in real life the ancient Tagalog tribe in the Philippines are seafarers due to their Austronesian heritage, and [[BilingualBonus their own name means "people of the rivers"]]. The sea-god Haik is [[CharacterTitle the title's Crocodile God,]] and the story's {{Mythopoeia}} deems him a folk memory of Paikea the Whale-Rider from New Zealand, bringing this UpToEleven since the Maori are Polynesian. (As the RealLife folder and the page-quote from ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'' notes, Polynesians were ''especially'' good navigators even among Austronesians.) It's revealed later on that Haik's sister is Hina, which also makes him an {{Expy}} of Maui.

** While there are some hedgehog tribes known to sail the rivers of Mossflower, the best inland sailors are the tribes of shrews in logboats. The otters are also all proficient sailors, and led by a leader called Skipper.

* ''LIterature/TechnicHistory'': ''The Man Who Counts'' features a race of flying aliens, of which one major tribe spends most of their life on giant rafts, sailing across their world's seas.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Numenera}}'': The Redfleets, an organization of traders, explorers and small-time pirates. They revere the ocean, and dedicate their lives to exploring it both by ship and submarine to discover its many treasures. They have no interest in man-made things, however, and focus exclusively on natural treasures -- oceanic formations, islands, sea creatures and so on.

* ''TabletopGame/RocketAge'': The thirty three Green-Yellow Chanari tribes are the preeminent [[AlienSea silt sailors]] of Mars. Most sea trade on Mars is done through them, along with most of the piracy, and they are the only people who dare to hunt Silt Dragons, the largest vertebrate in the solar system.

** While the bulk of Dark Elf society is firmly anchored on land, the call of the sea is considered sacred in Druchii society, to the point that corsairs are afforded great respect throughout Naggaroth and embarking on their first raiding cruise is an important rite of passage for young nobles. There is no sea that their pirate fleets and Black Arks haven't sailed on, and no coastline that hasn't known their raids.
** The Gilleau River in Bretonnia is home to the Gillites, a culture of river nomads who live in decorated houseboats and make it a point of personal pride to never set foot on dry land. They're proficient sailors and hole a near monopoly on riverine trade along the Gilleau.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': Among the [[Literature/SpaceWolf Space Wolves]] (space Vikings), Engir Krakendoom's tribe are known for being the best sailors, hunting sea monsters with nothing but oars, harpoons and axes. Their skills translate well when SpaceIsAnOcean, and so his Company excels at boarding and ship-to-ship combat.

** ''VideoGame/CivilizationBeyondEarth'' has the North Sea Alliance faction, a coalition formed from the British isles, the Dutch and Scandinavia. They are one of two factions able to settle their first city on the water, and their unique ability increases the combat strength of oceanic cities as well as reducing the cost of moving them to acquire territory.

** The ''Holy Fury'' DLC throws a complicating factor into things by allowing ''any'' pagan faith to become master seafarers at reformation by taking the Sea-Bound doctrine (representing a major element of the reformed faith), which grants them the unreformed Germanic ship maintenance reduction and ability to sail up major rivers (if they take the Daring doctrine as well they even get pirate traits they can earn by raiding, although due to coding limits they still grant an opinion bonus with Germanics specifically). Germanics and Aztecs can instead take unique doctrines which combine the abilities of Sea-Bound with one or more doctrines. Coastal conquest is still unique to Germanics, however.

** Despite never developing a written language or even agriculture, the ancient Atmorans ([[{{Precursors}} ancestors of the modern Nords]]) were master ship-builders and sailors. Their most famous shipyard was Jylkurfyk, from which [[FounderOfTheKingdom Ysgramor]] commissioned ships for [[BadassArmy he and his companions]] to invade Tamriel.

* ''VideoGame/{{Starcraft}}'': While it makes no difference in-game, the manual explains that the Auriga tribe of Protoss were the first to explore the seas of Aiur, and ten millenia later they maintain their species' space fleet.

* ''Webcomic/{{Outsider}}'': The Belerid [[SpaceElves Loroi]] of Taben, living on a dwarf, icy continent in an [[SingleBiomePlanet ocean world]] where violent weather made farming difficult and most food was in the sea, developed a proudly maritime culture focused on fishing, whaling, exploration, trade and piracy. The modern Tenoin caste, which consists of the Loroi forces' spaceship crews and navigators, has its origins on Taben and still maintains training facilities in Beleri.

** The Austronesians, an umbrella group that includes the Polynesians, who could be an UpToEleven variant of this trope. Despite having no metalworking, writing, or organized states, Austronesians expanded over half the world's oceans, from Madagascar in the west to Easter island in the east.

** Japan subverts this in that, despite being an island nation, it actually was ''not'' very good at shipbuilding and naval warfare for most of its national history; it was simply too far away from everyone else in the world to make it worthwhile, most of the seafood was close to shore, and the islands weren't far enough away from one another to demand significant navigational skills to reach. The one conspicuous time that the Japanese ''did'' invade mainland Asia, in the 1590's, they were crushed at sea by the Koreans... who ironically did fit this trope at the time. Double subverted in that after industrialization and modernization, the Japanese did rapidly become one of the top and most feared naval powers on Earth.
** The Four Maritime Republics of Renaissance Italy -- Venice, Genoa, Pisa and Amalfi -- were four city-states that built their wealth and power on the backs of their powerful fleets and their maritime trading networks, existing as major powers in trade and politics throughout the Mediterranean for much of the Middle Ages and Renaissance. Even today, the official flag of the Italian Merchant Navy consists of the Italian flag with the symbols of the four republics emblazoned on a shield in its center.

* The United States, following in the example of the British Empire, would grow to be a major merchant and naval power throughout the 19th century. A major driving factor for most examples of the US getting involved in major overseas conflicts throughout its history at least until the outset of the Cold War were disruptions to its overseas trade and merchant marine, examples including the Barbary Wars, Quasi-War with France (extension of the Wars of French Revolution), the War of 1812 (extension of the Napoleanic Wars), World War I, and World War II.

This trope is a common feature of OceanPunk settings. A related skill is that of TheNavigator.

->''"The ironmen live their whole lives at sea."

->''"We read the wind and the sky\\
When the sun is high\\
We sail the length of the seas\\
On the ocean breeze\\
\\
At night we name every star\\
We know where we are\\
We know who we are, who we are!"''
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/{{Moana}}'', "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZrAmRxy_M We Know the Way]]"

-->-- ''Disney/{{Moana}}'', "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubZrAmRxy_M We Know the Way]]"

* ''Literature/TheCrocodileGod'': As in real life the ancient Tagalog tribe in the Philippines are seafarers due to their Austronesian heritage, and [[BilingualBonus their own name means "people of the rivers"]]. The sea-god Haik is [[CharacterTitle the title's Crocodile God,]] and the story's {{Mythopoeia}} deems him a folk memory of Paikea the Whale-Rider from New Zealand, bringing this UpToEleven since the Maori are Polynesian. (As the RealLife folder and the page-quote from ''Disney/{{Moana}}'' notes, Polynesians were ''especially'' good navigators even among Austronesians.) It's revealed later on that Haik's sister is Hina, which also makes him an {{Expy}} of Maui.

** The taotake people sail nomadically across Golarion's oceans, either individually, in small groups of boats or in true cities of ships. They're chiefly merchants and explorers, trading with whoever they encounter and placing a great deal of value on discovery -- a Taotake isn't believed to have found their true name until they discover and name something no Taotake did before. Consequently, bands of Taotake sailors can be found in every sea and ocean of the world, mapping out the world and trading as they go. Culturally, they're strongly inspired by Polynesian peoples.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Pathfinder}}'': The munavri descend from Azlanti seafarers who were drawn into the Darklands during Azlant's fall and maintain their ancestors' maritime traditions, sailing the breadth of the Sightless Sea on ivory ships and living on floating island-cities. Not all munavri take to the sea -- most priests and craftsmen never leave their islands -- but sea travel still plays an important part in their culture and all young munavri are expected to build a skiff and learn how to sail.

-->-- ''Disney/{{Moana}}'', "We Know the Way"

[[quoteright:350:[[Disney/{{Moana}} https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/weknowtheway.png]]]]

[[folder:Films -- Animation]]
* ''Disney/{{Moana}}'': Moana's people were once skilled seafarers, roaming the ocean to discover new islands as the gods created them, but after Maui took the Heart of Creation the seas became hostile and forbidding and they mothballed their seafaring canoes. [[spoiler:After Moana returns the Heart to Te Fiti, they take up their heritage again.]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

** The Gilleau River in Bretonnia is home to the Gillites, a culture of river sailors who live in decorated houseboats and make it a point of personal pride to never set foot on dry land. They're proficient sailor and hole a near monopoly on riverine trade along the Gilleau.

** While there are some hedgehog tribes known to sail the rivers of Mossflower, the best inland sailors are the tribes of shrews in logboats. Out at sea, it's sea otters and searats (both are piratical, the otters attacking vermin and the rats any helpless victims).
** The (river) otters, one of the AlwaysLawfulGood species in the series, are all proficient sailors, led by one they call Skipper.

* ''TabletopGame/{{Warhammer}}'': The Norscans are naturally good at sailing (being the HeavyMetal version of HornyVikings), repeatedly raiding the equivalents of Europe and Canada. [[Literature/{{Wulfrik}} Wulfrik the Wanderer]] even has a flying longship that can go through the Warp and emerge anywhere he wants it to, leading to his moniker of "the Inescapable One".

[[folder:Video Games]]

* The Quarians from the ''Franchise/MassEffect'' series lost their homeworld in a RobotWar centuries ago, and have since been traveling the galaxy in a giant flotilla of space ships. Quarian names even include the ship they were born on and the ship they serve under following their Pilgrimage. As a result, their spacefaring skill is legendary and unquestioned throughout the setting.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

* Eland from the ''Literature/ArciaChronicles'' is a small northern kingdom that is (in)famous for its disproportionately huge sometimes-merchant-sometimes-pirate navy, to the point where the terms "Elander" and "mariner" are used as interchangeable ethnonyms. This goes doubly so after the old coastal Eland from the first duology is flooded by natural cataclysms and its refugees settle on a well-hidden archipelago in the south seas, basically precluding any land contact with other countries.
* As in real life, ''Literature/TheCrocodileGod'' slates the ancient Tagalog tribe in the Philippines as seafarers due to their Austronesian heritage, and [[BilingualBonus their own name "Tagalog" means "people of the rivers."]] The sea-god Haik is [[CharacterTitle the title's Crocodile God,]] and the story's {{Mythopoeia}} deems him a folk-memory of Paikea the Whale-Rider from New Zealand, bringing this UpToEleven since the Maori are Polynesian. (As the RealLife folder and the page-quote from {{Disney/Moana}} notes, Polynesians were ''especially'' good navigators even among Austronesians.)
** Later on it's revealed that Haik's sister is Hina, which also makes him an {{Expy}} of Maui.
* The Minotaurs in ''Literature/{{Dragonlance}}'' are known for being the most accomplished sailors and advanced shipbuilders on Ansalon, to the point that most minotaurs end up serving aboard a sailing vessel at some point in their lives.

* ''Literature/TheFarthestShore'' in the Earthsea Trilogy has the Raft People, who live at sea and only come to shore to collect logs to build new rafts.
* The Maarin people from ''Literature/DarkShores'' are a nation of seafaring people. Their home is an archipelago but most of them are born and spend their lives on their ships, travelling around the world. They are also the only ones who know how to navigate deadly doldrums and cross the Endless Seas.

* In ''VideoGame/CrusaderKingsII'', any nation with a lot of coastline can become a serious contender at amphibious warfare, and merchant republics require coastal access to build trade routes, but the true sea kings are the Norse. All counties of Norse culture get free shipyards when the "Dawn of the Viking Age" event fires around 790 AD (and start with them in the 867 AD start date), while [[Myth/NorseMythology Germanic pagans]] (also chiefly Norse, though the Saxons follow the same faith) can sail up major rivers to raid inland and portage ships overland between them (letting them raid in the Black Sea, up the Danube to southern Germany, and into the Mediterranean by sailing through otherwise landlocked western Russia and Ukraine), and may declare county conquest wars against any coastal province (instead of merely ones on their own borders as other pagans, Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims can). They also have a slew of traits they earn by raiding.

[[folder:Film -- Animated]]

[[folder:Videogames]]

[[folder:Webcomics]]