Generalized "Northerly" course , used elsewhere on this site to
describe Kagy migrations.
"A View of the General Trade-Winds, Monsoons or
Shifting-Winds"
Herman Moll - 1752.
(From
University of Southern Maine website at
http://usm.maine.edu/maps/exhibit8/nrwinds.html)
Winds, as evidenced by the above Herman Moll chart, appear to be conducive to a
multitude of possible routes out of England, northerly or southerly, subject to
the bands of variable winds. Ships could run "with the wind" for most
routes, or at least on a favorable "beam or broad reach", excluding
measures necessary to counter variable "monsoon or shifting winds".
Chart
of the Gulf Stream, Benjamin Franklin/James Poupard - 1786.
(With
possible "Northerly " route to Philadelphia annotated in blue, by
JCC, per Benjamin Franklin's description.)
(Library
of Congress, Map Collection, "American Memories", link-
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:1:./temp/~ammem_SoMH::)
The
effects of the Gulf Stream on Atlantic crossings, the stream's precise
location, and therefore how to decrease sailing times by it's avoidance, was
not as well known in the early eighteenth century by most except the whaling
ship captains out of North America. Some literature suggests that a bit of
"sailing knowledge snobbery" practiced by European
captains in disputing the validity of this information, contributed
to it's delayed usage. (‘‘They were too wise to be counseled by simple American
fishermen.")
The
above rendition published from the personal research/documentation
(collected 1726-1786) of
Benjamin Franklin in 1786, reflects a fairly accurate depiction of it's
limits. Also included on the far left side (not shown above) of the map was
a description by Franklin on how to navigate a course north of the stream
and stay off of the shoals near St. George's Banks and the Nantucket coast.
(included below) It is claimed that by successfully avoiding the stream, one
could gain up to 60 or 70 miles a day.
Benjamin
Franklin's 1786 "Gulph Stream" Navigation Remarks.
Additional
Gulf Stream detail from the 1786 Franklin chart.
Annotated History of the Gulf Stream
Current
( found at http://www.k12science.org/curriculum/gulfstream/annotated.html
)
In actual observations of the Gulf Stream, or rather in the currents
contributing to it, Columbus was the pioneer in Western recorded history.
Later related by Peter Martyr, in 1492 Columbus remarked about the strong
currents of the Caribbean Sea. However, the first record of
satisfactory evidence of the discovery of the Gulf Stream current, comes
from Ponce de Leon's expedition in 1513 to search for the fountain of youth.
Referring to the current in the ship's journal, it seemed as if the
ship was moving quickly through the water, but they soon recognized it was
an illusion. In fact that they were being driven back because the
current was stronger than the wind. Two vessels, which were somewhat
nearer the coast, came to anchor; the third vessel, a brig, being in deeper
water, could not anchor, and was soon "carried away by the current and
lost from sight although it was a clear day."
In 1590 John White, the Governor of the colony at Roanoke, referred to the
portion of the voyage from the Florida Keys to Virginia: "We lost sight
of the coast and stood to sea for to gaine the helpe of the current,
which runneth much swifter farre off than in sight of the coast, for from
the Cape of Florida to Virginia, all along the shore, are none but eddie
currents setting to the south and southwest." This is the first
recorded knowledge of an approximate position of the Gulf Stream.
The influence of the Gulf Stream in the colonization of North America was
great. In 1606 the English divided their claimed land into two parts,
northern and southern territories prescribed by the routes the ships had to
take to reach their destinations. After the English and Dutch
settlements became firmly established and crossing the Atlantic became
common, the personal experience of navigators was no longer thought to be of
sufficient importance to print, so their information was not widely shared.
Several people continued to offer descriptions and explanations for the
current, but no maps or charts of the current seem to have been created or
survived history.
The lack of general knowledge of the Gulf Stream impacted early American
ship travel. For instance, there are several accounts of voyages from
Boston, Massachusetts, traveling south to Charleston, South Carolina, taking
three or four weeks, while a return trip would frequently be made in one
week. The whalemen, however, were gaining knowledge and experience
regarding the Gulf Stream. The whalers extended their search for the
current as far south as the Bahamas and as far east as the Azores. The
interest in the current lay in the discovery that whales appeared to the
north and to the south of the current and were but rarely seen within the
Gulf Stream. The whale fishery soon became the school for American
navigators, so the knowledge of the Gulf Stream slowly was introduced into
commercial shipping. The American shipmasters, from their superior
information on the subject of currents, inaugurated a change in the sailing
route from Europe, by which they could save two weeks or more in the
passage. From England they crossed the Newfoundland Banks in about
latitude 44 and 45 degrees, and set then a course along the coast, avoiding
the Gulf Stream. Throughout the colonial era, the Gulf
Stream remained the principal ocean route along the southern coast of North
America. Trade in rum, sugar and spices was vital to the economic
needs of the growing markets. Although the current was a benefit to
some ships, it proved detrimental to others, primarily the English, pushing
west to the New England colonies from Britain. (NOAA
Gulf Stream History)
In 1768, when Benjamin Franklin,
then-postmaster general for the American colonies, traveled to London, where
he was questioned by British authorities about why letters took much longer
to get to New York than to New England ports when the two locations were
‘‘scarcely a day's sail apart" and why westward mail from Europe
to America took weeks longer than the east-bound ships from America.
Franklin could not offer an immediate answer but began an investigation.
His first piece of evidence was actually in his own journal. Franklin
recalled a curious occurrence in 1726 while sailing from London to
Philadelphia. After several weeks at sea, Franklin noted that the
color of the ocean water began to change. There were "hot damp
winds," along with "an abundance of grass" and other seaweed
visible in the water. To Franklin, the warmer air and warmer water
suggested that the ship must be very near the coast, but the ship’s
captain scoffed at that idea. And, indeed, after six days, the ocean water
regained its former darker color, and the hot wind and abundant seaweed
disappeared. The ship was nowhere near the coast. Franklin had no
explanation for the peculiar changes in the character of the ocean he had
seen in the mid Atlantic, but later in 1769, that was about to change.
(Study
Place: Ben Franklin and the Gulf Stream)
Franklin thought of another source of
information. His cousin, Timothy Folger, an American whaling captain.
Folger knew exactly why there was a delay in mail delivery. Folger
informed Franklin that American whalers were well-acquainted with the Gulf
Stream. They knew whales could be found along its plankton-rich boundaries.
They also knew travel back to New England whaling ports could be hastened by
sailing north of the powerful push of the current. Folger said Americans
had frequently told British captains about the futility of fighting the
current (running against the current could cost a ship as much as 70 miles a
day in westward progress) and how to avoid it, but that they had ignored the
advice. ‘‘They were too wise to be counseled by simple American
fishermen." (The
Atlantic Coastline: The Gulf Stream)
Franklin asked Folger to sketch the current on a map, which he then had
printed and presented to the Lords of the Treasury, who in turn passed it
along to their captains. In the light of later research,
including satellite observations in the late 20th century, the Franklin-Folger
chart proved a remarkably accurate portrayal of the path taken by the Gulf
Stream. Unfortunately, most of the packet ship captains ignored the
new charts, and mail service between Europe and America continued to lag.
All the original copies of the Franklin-Folger chart were soon lost (one was
finally located in a French library in 1978), but subsequent versions were
published in France in the early 1780s and in Philadelphia in 1785. (NOAA
and Ships of Opportunity on the Northeastern Continental Shelf)
Franklin, being the scientist that he was, became intrigued by the idea of a
"stream" existing in a large body of water such as the Atlantic
ocean. Therefore, in 1775 during his return voyage from England to the
colonies, Franklin took temperature measurements of the ocean water from two
to four times per day (Van Doren). From his readings, he could
determine whether a vessel was in or out of the stream, and even
approximately how close or distant a ship was from America. Franklin
proposed that, "This Stream is probably generated by the accumulation
of water on the eastern coast of America between the tropics, by the trade
winds that constantly blow there . . ." He also recorded that the
western bank of the stream is significantly cooler (shallower water) than
the eastern bank. He reasoned that the velocity of the stream
gradually slowed as it flowed north, but could maintain its relative warmth
to the colder North Atlantic. Franklin is generally given credit for
correctly explaining the stream's cause. Franklin even suggested the
name "Gulf Stream," even though it is a huge, circular motion in
the Atlantic Ocean and has little to do with the Gulf of Mexico.
In 1776, the American Congress appointed three commissioners to travel to
France in order to gain French support in the American Revolution. Franklin
was chosen as one of the commissioners. On 26 October, Franklin left
Philadelphia on board the Reprisal. "The indomitable old man, who was
almost certain to be hanged for high treason if the Reprisal should be
captured, noted the temperature of air and water every day, again studying
the Gulf Stream" (Van Doren). Franklin did not return to
America until 1785. On this trip, he again took daily measurements of the
water temperature and notes concerning the currents, water color and gulf
weed content. He also wrote Maritime Observations on this trip. This
work included his notes on the Gulf Stream's causes and uses as well as a
multitude of other information about sailing the oceans. (Van Doren).
(Benjamin Franklin
and the Gulf Stream)
In the mid 1800's, Matthew Fontaine Maury
and his contemporaries used equipment to measure water temperature, buoyancy
and current speed information from around the world. He distributed
special logs, each with 12 blank pages in the back, to Navy and merchant
captains to record data from their travels. Maury and his staff
analyzed the notes from the crossings and generated the first edition of
‘‘Wind and Current Charts’‘ in 1847. Captains who were
once reluctant to take part in Maury's study began to take notice when
crossing times began to be dramatically reduced. One captain cut 35 days off
a 110-day journey to Rio de Janeiro. Maury offered the charts for free
to anyone who would send in data. His work was the foundation for much
of the research over the next century. Oceanographers poured over
reports of derelict ships and floating debris, a peril to navigation and a
treasure-trove of information. As the location of the flotsam was
plotted and the drifting debris was tracked, scientists gradually began to
realize that currents formed oceans, not the other way around.
Scientists continue to study the Gulf Stream using increasingly
sophisticated technology.
"A
New Chart of the Vast Atlantic or Western Ocean", by Carington Bowles - 1771.
(Many
thanks to Christopher Winter at the University of Chicago Map Collection)
A
terrific find in the quest to further understand the Atlantic routes of our
predecessors, was this Carington Bowles chart from 1771. The
"red" routes were the original hand inkings of Carington Bowles, with
the fine print descriptions of each route blown up for web viewing.
Noticeably absent are any Gulf Stream references or more northerly routes as a
result of that knowledge, perhaps due to it's pre-dating of the 1786
Franklin chart. Below is a blow-up of Bowle's chart description fine print,
found in the lower right hand corner of the above chart.
From
the above, we might surmise that the time saving generalized
"Northerly" route that is proposed elsewhere on this website, is
probably not the true route used by Kagy, Beery, or Kreidelbach ancestors in
the 1715 to 1750 time frame. My guess is that the second from top route in
the above chart, labeled "Course to New York &c.", and
coming from England via the Azores, is most probably the route taken**. If
accurate, then the above mentioned families had at least one more stop
(after England) for provisioning in the Azores, before making the longer
Atlantic crossing to Philadelphia. So, the longer (distance-wise) "Trade Winds"
route through the Madera, Canary, and Caribbean or West Indies Islands, was
probably not a part of their experiences.
**Unless,
of course, the earlier captains took a more direct northerly route that
inadvertently fought the current of the Gulf Stream, contributing to a time
of passage of 60 to 120 days, instead of the 20 to 30 when avoiding the Gulf
Stream.
Full
title of the above chart:
“A
New Chart
of
the Vast
Atlantic
or Western Ocean
including
the Sea Coast of
Europe,
Africa, America
and
the
West
India Islands
With
the Banks Shoals Rocks & Course of
Sailing
from One Continent to the other Laid
down
from the latest discoveries & regulated by
Numerous
Astronomical
Observations”
"London,
Printed for Carington Bowles in St. Pauls Church Yard, at No. 69.
Published
1st Jany. 1771."
Carington
Bowle's Chart description: (1771)
"The part relating to the British Dominions in
America have been improved from several late Surveys, particularly Capt.
Southacks Accurate Survey of the Coasts of New England, published 1731,
which gives Nova Scotia or Acadia quite a new form. Mr. Moseley’s Map of
North Carolina in 1733, and Mr. Wimble’s Chart of the Coasts in 1739, Mr.
Atkinson’s Survey of the Virgin Islands 1739, besides the particular
Surveys of Jamaica, Hispaniola, St. Christophers, Antigua, Martinico, St.
Lucia, Barbados &c. The North parts of America with Newfoundland, the
Coasts of Europe & Africa are taken from the best Maps & Charts,
particularly the French Chart of the Western Ocean; drawn by order of the
Comte de Maurepas in 1738, from the Charts & Plans deposited in the
Marine – Office. The whole is adjusted by Numerous Observations of the
Latitude & Longitude made by Astronomers, & the places marked where
the Observations where made, by help of which any one may on sight judge the
Correctness of other Charts of the same parts."
"N.B. Places where Lat. & Lon. Have been
observed distinguished thus …….Gori I."
"Places where Latitude only thus ………….. I.
Formosa"
Corroboration
of Atlantic crossing times in the 1700's:
-
straight line distance from Southampton to Philadelphia = 3301 nautical
miles, or 3796 miles; adding 15% for variation = 4365 mi.;
-
a reasonable average sailing speed for a three masted brig, barque, or
merchant ship may be estimated at 4-5 knots
-
knot (nautical mile) = 1.15 miles, 4 knots/hr = 4.6 mph
-
at 4.6 mph, 4365 miles is covered in 39.5 days
-
if sailing against the gulf current, losing 60 miles per day, apparent speed
is reduced by 60/24 = 2.5 mph loss
-
apparent speed against the gulf stream = 4.6 mph -2.5 = 2.1 mph
-
if two-thirds of the trip is against the gulf stream current, then .67 x
3992 = 2925 miles at 2.1 mph, 1441 miles at 4.6 mph
-
time of passage if 2/3 of trip is against the current = 71.1 days (almost
twice as long)
-
distance from Southampton to Philadelphia via the Azores
including 15% variation = 4917 miles
-
time via the above route at 4.6 mph avg = 44.5 days (no effects from
the Gulf Stream, though on part of the leg from England to the Azores, the
effect would have been beneficial)
-
a "fast" whaling ship averaging 7.0 knots, could traverse the
northerly route, 4365 miles, in 22.6 days
These
calculations seem to agree with documented merchant crossing times of 30 to
120 days, and confirms that a route from England via the Azores is
preferable to the "apparently" shorter one that goes against the
current. A route that is almost 600 miles longer appears to shorten the trip
by over twenty six days, excluding the "layover" in the Azores for
re-provisioning. A northerly route that manages to skirt the northern edge
of the gulf stream, stands to shorten the trip by another five days by these
calculations.
Cotham-Gibbs
Ancestry ~ Maps to Kagay Migrations
