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From: Trevor J. Kenchington (no email)
Date: Mon Aug 23 2004 - 17:44:04 EDT
Jim wrote:
> This fascinating image from that website shows all the positions of the
> available observations in the CLIWOC database for the period 1750-1854,
> thereby indicating global "western nation" shipping routes and ship traffic
> volumes of the era:
> http://www.knmi.nl/cliwoc/images/all_ships0.jpg
What a remarkable map! Not quite all the shipping routes, as it is only
those for which the map makers had logbooks available, but still remarkable.
1850 was before Maury, so ships were running their easting down across
the Indian Ocean in the 30s of latitude, instead of following Great
Circle routes.
It was also almost before the California trade took off in '49, while
the very limited Australian trade still went home round Good Hope, not
the Horn. Hence the Pacific was almost empty, save for the wanderings of
the whaling fleets.
Japan hadn't been opened to trade but it is interesting that so many
vessels ran to Batavia but so few went on to China. Or maybe the opium
clippers just didn't leave logbooks.
The trade to Indian still ran mostly to Calcutta and Madras. Bombay's
rise to dominance presumably came with the opening of Suez twenty years
after the cut-off date for the map.
Within the Atlantic, the dominance of European trade is still evident,
before the vast economic expansion of the U.S.A. later in the 19th
century. Pre-Maury, the New York to Liverpool or the Channel trade is
seen following approximately the rumb line course, instead of getting
north of the Gulf Stream and onto the Great Circle.
Only two voyages to or from the Mississippi. Had the cotton trade from
Mobile and New Orleans not developed by 1850 or have the logbooks just
not survived?
In the north, the route of the Hudson's Bay Company ships is easily
seen, as are the voyages of the Spitzbergen whalers. But the map makers
seem not to have consulted the logbooks of the Davis Strait whale fleet.
But the lack of records from the Mediterranean, Baltic, English Channel
etc. must result from the map makers deliberately excluding those areas.
Fascinating!
Trevor Kenchington
--
Trevor J. Kenchington PhD
Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250
R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251
Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555
Science Serving the Fisheries
http://home.istar.ca/~gadus
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