Right on, Chief! We must also remember that, except with great struggle and much time, one could not sail from England straight to New England, VA, MD, the Carolinas or GA. The winds simply did not permit such a course.
The Atlantic of the sailing ship is best understood by picturing an imaginary clock over the ocean with noon being Iceland and 6:00 being the Equator, with the Trade Winds moving fully around the face of that clock. On such a clock face England might fall at 2:00 and VA at 8:00, as Herrick has written. One could not sail straight from one to the other, because in the center of that imaginary clock there were no substantial prevailing winds atall, hence a ship might become becalmed for many weeks. That windless area was known as the Sargasso Sea, was northeast of the West Indies, and was avoided by all sailing ships for all time. Moreover, the Sargasso grass ("gulf weed") was present and very heavy from March till November; it, a thick and massive seaweed extending over thousands of square miles within that Sargasso Sea. That weed often entrapped ships and held those, again, for weeks or even months.
In short, one could only with great seamanship and a lot of time sail straight from 2:00 or 3:00 on our clockface to 7, 8, 9 or 10:00 on that face where were located the American colonies. The existence of the winds also contributed mightily to the early Spanish and Portuguese explorations of the New World. Those sailors and their ships easily could move with the winds directly from their ports to the West Indies. Paul
----- Original Message -----
From: Herrick....
To: ....
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2004 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: [DRAKE] Trade winds
Hey you Drake sailors out there, There's another reason for the ships going
south first. Aas indicated, that's where the winds and currents were best
but, also, London is between 51 and 52 degrees North latitude while New York
is at 41 degrees and Virginia 37. Ya gotta go South.
Marv ( Formerly USN, now retired O-6)
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