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A Portolan is a map designed for "Dead Reckoning" a form of marine navigation used in the 15th century. It amounts to "take a compass bearing, and keep following the compass until you hit land, and maybe try to figure out how fast you are going to get an idea of where you are along that line." It's not very accurate (As it's very hard to figure out your speed and doesn't account for sideways drift) or very efficient over long distances (as it doesn't follow great circle paths) but it's a big improvement over just hugging the coast.
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