Scientists have discovered that a variety of species of spider are capable of sailing across the water like ships, and they are able to do so by using their legs much like a ship and their silk to anchor them in place.

It is well known that spiders are able to take flight via “ballooning” by having the wind catch a strand of silk, which allows them to travel nearly 20 miles per day, but what wasn’t known was that spiders are pretty adept at traveling by sea as well, according to an Independent report.

In fact, scientists looked at 21 species of spider and found that all of them showed this ability. Using trays of water, they were able to look at the postures of these spiders and how they take advantage of the wind.

The spiders would also use their silk to slow down or even stop on the surface of the water.

Scientists used 325 adult spiders among 21 species for the study. These species are found on small islands in nature reserves near Britain. Morito Hayashi, the lead researcher for the project who also works at the Natural History Museum in London, said according to the report that Charles Darwin noted that spiders in flight were dropping miles from the sea shore, and wondered at how they were able to survive the risky practice of ballooning. These new findings could help answer that question, showing that spiders are good at sailing and can thus compensate for an unlucky landing spot.

Therefore, it makes sense that scientists found that spiders that used ballooning were also the best at sailing. This finding helps scientists answer the questions on spider migration and movements, explaining how they can move from one land mass to another and across such large distances.

The findings were published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.