Sea lane This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Sea_lane".
A sea lane is regularly used route for ocean-going vessels. In the time of sailing ships they were not only determined by the distribution of land masses but also the prevailing winds, whose discovery was crucial for the success of long voyages.
They are very important for trade by sea and as a result were popular places for pirates. In World War I as German U-boats began hitting American and British shipping, the Allied trade vessels began to move out of the sea lanes to be escorted by Naval ships.
Age of sail
