the 6th century, the Spanish-Portuguese hegemony in navigation was patent in fields such as geography and cosmography. Both English and French pilots learned to navigate from the texts of Pedro de Medina, Martín Fernández de Enciso and Martín Cortés, among others. The conjunction of "cannons and sails" has been argued to have given European states the advantage to prevail over the rest, launching the modern "world system".Since the 18th century, England exercised maritime hegemony, a fact that was confirmed in the early 19th century with the Battle of Trafalgar (1805). Among the main English expeditions of the time were Captain Cook's (1768-1779), also the second expedition of the Beagle (1831-1836) — which was of great importance for the later development of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. Already fully in the age of steam navigation, techniques and vessels continued to be perfected in transoceanic sailing (clipper), that did not become obsolete for commercial navigation until the 20th century — especially after the opening of the Panama Canal. Even then, the unbridled optimism that characterized the naval design of the time suffered a severe blow with the sinking of the Titanic (1912).Contemporary shipping has massively ceased to perform one of its traditional functions and has been replaced by aviation, such as passenger transport, although with two important exceptions: leisure travel (tourism by cruise ships) and irregular traffic of people (irregular immigration). Since the Second Industrial Revolution, the main volume of freight transport has been hydrocarbons (oil tankers and gas tankers). Other raw materials are also transported in bulk on cargo ships, but from 1956 onward, a large part of goods of all kinds were adapted to standardized containers that speed up loading and unloading, allowing a combination with land transport (hub). Highly technological navigation has reduced crews and increased the size of ships. For example, in deep-sea fishing, which locates its prey with sophisticated means and lasts indefinitely in time — freezer ships or factory ships — which in some circumstances has made them vulnerable to new forms of piracy. Methods and techniques These are the methods used in maritime navigation to solve the three problems of the navigator: Determining the "course". Determining the "time", the "speed" and "distance", for the duration of the voyage. Knowing the "depth" in which one is sailing so as not to run aground. Coastal navigation Navigation and location of the ship by positioning techniques based on