Comments on: 100 years of ocean travel 1750 to 1850

100 years of ocean travel 1750 to 1850

stbalbach — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:43:52 -0800

For centuries, ships navigated by the stars. Thousands of ships' logs representing hundreds of thousands of position readings were diligently recorded by sailors for a future use they never could have imagined: 100 years of ocean travel 1750 to 1850.

By: tylerkaraszewski

tylerkaraszewski — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 21:53:13 -0800

And today, with GPS, you can watch the same thing in real time.

By: anewnadir

anewnadir — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:07:43 -0800

This is great.

By: spitefulcrow

spitefulcrow — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:10:40 -0800

Anyone else getting strong memories of middle-school history classes and the Triangle Trade?

By: LobsterMitten

LobsterMitten — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:13:48 -0800

That is way cool, and I love the careful discussion below about the limits of the data set he's working with. Also this: "You see a blink in the year charts...at March 1: that's because 3/4 of all the ships disappear from the seas on February 29th every year. I just left that one in, because it's interesting."

By: delmoi

delmoi — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:40:23 -0800

By: Rumple

Rumple — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 22:51:08 -0800

[This is Good]

By: tylerkaraszewski

tylerkaraszewski — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:04:01 -0800

Fascinating. Some of these boats seemed to have gone in fairly circuitous routs, they kind of look like they're staggering around drunk or something. There were a couple that seemed to head out in one way, then zip around in a totally different direction. Sailing ships at sea are largely at the mercy of the weather. They navigate in trade wind routes, and storms can force them long distances, not necessarily in a direction they wanted to go.

By: mazola

mazola — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:04:43 -0800

Fascinating. </spock>

By: Blasdelb

Blasdelb — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:12:54 -0800

I'm curious why the folks who know things in that comment thread left out American whalers, there are really good records kept of those log books, though I don't think they're digitized.

By: tylerkaraszewski

tylerkaraszewski — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:19:44 -0800

Also, if anyone is curious about what it's actually like to travel the world in a small-ish sailboat, Webb Chiles has free PDF versions of his books about his circumnavigations. I read the first two and found them both very interesting, even if they do illustrate the eccentricities of their author (but you wouldn't do this sort of thing if you weren't eccentric). It's not the same as colonial era commercial shipping, but does give you a pretty good idea of why a sailing ship might travel by a circuitous route, and other real world considerations of sailors.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 23:23:07 -0800

Fascinating. Some of these boats seemed to have gone in fairly circuitous routs, they kind of look like they're staggering around drunk or something. There were a couple that seemed to head out in one way, then zip around in a totally different direction. It's a good visualization, communicating two important things as the century passes: • navigation gets more accurate • average ship speed increases ...both, presumably, resulting from general improvements to technology.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 00:18:24 -0800

Yo, 51°32' N 0°5' W. Represent!

By: bonobothegreat

bonobothegreat — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:13:06 -0800

Some of these boats seemed to have gone in fairly circuitous routs, they kind of look like they're staggering around drunk or something. ...unfavourable winds? storms?

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 01:47:03 -0800

Drunken sailors? Unthinkable!

By: verstegan

verstegan — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:23:09 -0800

This is fantastic; thank you so much for posting it! There aren't many truly seasonal events, but a few stand out. There are regular summer voyages from Scotland to Hudson's Bay, and from Holland up towards Spitsbergen, for example: both these appear as huge convoys moving in sync. (What were those about?) I'm guessing that's the herring fishery (the 'groote visserij', as the Dutch called it), which was highly seasonal. This is particularly interesting as it provides a way to visualise the economic competition between the Scots and the Dutch, which could be really useful for historians.

By: valkyryn

valkyryn — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:14:30 -0800

1) This is obviously only working with a tiny subset of available records. Notice that there isn't a single ship in the Med the entire video. Also, the Napoleonic Wars don't even really show up. So it's hard to know whether we're looking at a representative sample of all the logs available, and impossible to know whether that is a representative sample of all the ships that sailed during a period. 2) That said, this video demonstrates big of a deal the Dutch were pre-WWI. Goes double for Spain. It's easy to forget that these days. 3) Regardless, the Atlantic really was a British pond there for a bit.

By: carter

carter — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:14:31 -0800

This is really good, and a really neat idea.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 04:52:40 -0800

Slight derail but- going back even further, the Vikings navigated cloudy days with the use of Sunstones.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 05:02:34 -0800

Also- really sorry that France is not included

By: Forktine

Forktine — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 05:43:29 -0800

That was neat to look at. But also heartbreaking when I realized that I was watching slave ships crossing the Atlantic.

By: rough ashlar

rough ashlar — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 05:50:28 -0800

The more interesting ships logs are of the N/S compass magnet readings. Earth's magnetic field is weakening in staggered steps, a new analysis of centuries-old ships logs suggests. The finding could help scientists better understand the way Earth's magnetic poles reverse.

By: qxntpqbbbqxl

qxntpqbbbqxl — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 06:31:50 -0800

GOOD START. NOW COMBINE IT WITH THE WIND VISUALIZATION MAP (but seriously, this is beautiful)

By: fings

fings — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:12:42 -0800

Also, combine it with the perpetual ocean current map.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:24:23 -0800

GOOD START. NOW COMBINE IT WITH THE WIND VISUALIZATION MAP And you'll probably see that the slave trade was based on more than racial ideology. It's not like God created favorable tradewinds for no reason you know.

By: toastchee

toastchee — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:41:55 -0800

This rules. Also with sailboats you have to zig and to zag to provide forward propulsion in the general direction you want to go. I am under the impression that the square rigs were mostly useful in a downwind (from behind) tack, but poor upwind or in a reach (wind on the side). These days we sail boats with a sail plan that mostly includes the Bermudan configuration where the sail is behind the mast (or standing rigging). This provides better performance upwind and on reaches. Does anyone know the details or history of what I just explained? I am trying to find more explanation and most importantly, the impact of sail plans throughout the ages.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 07:48:48 -0800

Related, a static visualization of the same dataset. The breakout of Spanish vs Dutch ships is particularly nice.

By: HotToddy

HotToddy — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:37:22 -0800

What's with the ships making a U-turn in the South Atlantic?

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 08:47:52 -0800

And what's with all the trails that suddenly stop in the middle of the ocean? At first I assumed those ships had sunk for some reason, but then we wouldn't have the logs available. So...?

By: Bulgaroktonos

Bulgaroktonos — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:06:39 -0800

And what's with all the trails that suddenly stop in the middle of the ocean? At first I assumed those ships had sunk for some reason, but then we wouldn't have the logs available. So...? I think most of those are going to islands to small to see on the map. I saw some that were clearly going to the Azores for instance. There were some where I couldn't put my finger on where they were stopping, but I'm guessing it's an island.

By: N-stoff

N-stoff — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 09:15:01 -0800

IndigoJones - France is in there, just not much. I can see colony/exploration voyages to Quebec (Arcadia?) and what I'd guess is d'Entrecasteaux visiting Australia. Did the French really have much of a trade fleet in this period? By the 1760's France was pretty much done as a player in North America. Being something of an exploration geek I started looking for specific paths in there. There are some pretty famous feats of navigation that aren't included - Cook's first voyage, Vancouver mapping the PNW, etc. and I'd think they would be well documented. Love this but the gaps in the data just leave me wanting more.

By: Outlawyr

Outlawyr — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:38:59 -0800

Very cool, thanks for posting this.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 10:43:05 -0800

Bulgaroktonos: There were some where I couldn't put my finger on where they were stopping, but I'm guessing it's an island. Interesting...in that case, there should be a return trip at some point. I'll have to watch the video again, more closely this time.

By: kostia

kostia — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:17:14 -0800

I kind of wanted to grab the tiny people by the shoulders and shake until someone dug the Suez Canal. But yeah, Mediterranean shipping being missing makes the whole round-the-Cape thing stand out more, now that you mention it.

By: justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow

justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:25:38 -0800

I knew the spice islands were important but I wasn't expecting Indonesia to be getting more traffic than India.

By: hcovitz

hcovitz — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:03:04 -0800

As fascinating as celestial navigation is, based on a perusal of the link and what I know about that point in history, the plotting was not done by the stars so much as the sun and the compass, as well as rough estimates of longitude (as Dava Sobel fans know, longitude was the nut to crack)

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:04:18 -0800

in that case, there should be a return trip at some point. I'll have to watch the video again, more closely this time. If the ship starts a new log at the way point and the latter log is lost you'd only see the out going trip.

By: Nelson

Nelson — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 12:26:15 -0800

As lovely as the videos are, two choices about them that make this a firmly Eurocentric view. The source dataset is European ships only. And the projection is the Gilbert two-world perspective. As the author notes, this completely destroys any sort of mapping of the Pacific Ocean. Which is a good choice for this dataset, but does leave out half the world's oceans. Nothing wrong with a Eurocentric view, it's fantastic data. But this visualization would look a lot different if it showed shipping traffic from China, the Arab states, Japan, Polynesia, etc. Related: Charles Mann's book 1493, although it mostly covers the era before these maps.

By: aeschenkarnos

aeschenkarnos — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 15:47:22 -0800

Was it necessary to keep ship's logs in the Mediterranean? To my understanding the primary function of a ship's log was as a navigational aid, ie a track of where we have been, which is extremely useful for helping to discover where we are and how we are doing on our journey. So in the Med, where ships mainly sailed near well-known landmarks, except right in the middle of it, and generally speaking knew where they were, there seems to be much less reason to keep a ship's log, other than on a port-by-port basis. Also, other ships are much more common so can be hailed to ask directions. For how long can you be out of sight of land in the Med, assuming you're not becalmed?

By: chronkite

chronkite — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 16:03:55 -0800

Totally wild..like watching the data set at the end of a real time strategy game.

By: Noon Under the Trees

Noon Under the Trees — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:24:51 -0800

Just a thought on the circuitous routes... sometimes it's not a question of UN-favorable winds as it is FAVORABLE winds. Just like it might be quicker at some times to take the interstate the long way around instead of the surface streets, it is often quicker to make use of the prevailing winds than to go straight (or as straight as you can) to your destination. Finding those routes was really a big reason why all these records were kept. It's amazing to watch those routes develop over the years. Kind of interesting to see how few ships take the East to West route around the Horn. Guess it really was a bad as all the stories say.

By: sammyo

sammyo — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 18:37:10 -0800

Shipping and ocean cruising by sail is not like your afternoon sailboat race 'around the cans'. Great planning goes into avoiding upwind routes. It's hard on the rigging, the boat and the crew. I read a blog of a couple that needed to deliver a boat to Brazil which was mostly upwind from where they were, the decided to basically reach to almost Africa, turn and take the trade winds back to Rio. Took an extra month but sounded most pleasant. Actually you can see some of that general pattern in the video.

By: jet_manifesto

jet_manifesto — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 00:40:46 -0800

Just at the moment I'm obsessively reading through the 20-volume Napoleonic-era nautical adventure Aubrey/Maturin series by Patrick O'Brien, so this is of particular interest. I could almost believe that ship stopping off in Ceylon is the Surprise en route to protect the China Fleet's 6 million from the predations of that wily old French admiral Linois. Great post!