>>509675261from my reckoning, the best pre-modern naval sailors were
1) polynesians (colonized the entire pacific despite going 1000 fucking miles on open ocean in tiny ships)
2) vikings (the longboat is extremely versatile and fast, the crew could even carry it across land making it a psuedo-amphibian vehicle)
3) portuguese/spanish (developed carracks and managed to both discover the new world (a second time *clears throat*) and circumvent africa to ignore the ottoman toll booths on the silk road)
if you really wanted to banter you would post the ship vasa