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May 4

Recreating shipping route

Obviously, this isn't the best map, and Belize has nothing to do with this, but I'm working with what I have right now. If you have a better map, great. I want to chart the route the bark Beta took from Drammen, Norway, to Maui, Hawaii, from 1880 to 1881. The only info I've found so far, was that it was around 15,000 nautical miles (I think, that could be wrong), it left Drammen on October 27, 1880, traveled through the North Sea, then the Atlantic, traveled down towards Cape Horn of South America, but took a shortcut through the narrow Strait of Magellan, traveled up to Chile for provisions in Valparaíso, then headed straight to Maui where they arrived on February 18, 1881. I want to approximate this route on this or a similar map, but I'm not sure how to calculate it to the closest approximation or how to even figure it out. ChatGPT can't figure it out either. Any idea how to approach this problem? Viriditas (talk) 02:05, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There are other known dates if that helps. The Beta made it through the Strait of Magellan to the other side around December 25, 1880. Viriditas (talk) 02:13, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

We'd need the ship's logbook for an accurate determination of it's route. We can't do much better than assuming that, while in the open seas, the ship followed segments of a great circle, being the shortest route between points on a globe. Take a map of the Earth in gnomonic projection, centred on, say, Bogotá, and draw the shortest sea route from Drammen around Cape Horn to Maui on this map (so large portions of this route are straight lines on the map). Then use suitable map projections to display this route on a map of any desired type, like a hemisphere of the globe in orthographic projection as above (with the ports of departure and arrival both almost on the edge). Since the dominant directions are more north—south than east—west and cross the equator, a reasonable approximation can also be based on loxodromic navigation, the commonly used method before navigation by chronometer became feasible. Just use a Mercator map instead of a gnomonic map. ‑‑Lambiam 07:31, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There are world maps of lighthouse locations. 19th Century sailors would prefer to divide a long voyage into straight legs whose ends could be confirmed by sight of a lighthouse. This suggests a way to estimate a likely route, though you must limit it to lighthouses that were operational in 1880 - 1881. See Lists of lighthouses. Philvoids (talk) 08:09, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, both. But wasn’t the Cape Horn route well known and traveled by the 1880s, with all the trade between the Kingdom of Hawaii and Europe by that time? I was under the impression the route should be easy to find. Viriditas (talk) 08:11, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Kuykendall (1953) indicates that this was a seasonal mail route in the early to mid-19th century for letters between Hawaii and Europe. Viriditas (talk) 08:49, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The route was well known, but that doesn't make it easy to find. The sea looks pretty much the same everywhere. PiusImpavidus (talk) 19:36, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Apologies for the confusion. I'm talking about finding the route to draw a line on a map on my end for an article about the subject, not the ease of navigating the route. Viriditas (talk) 00:25, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It is not implausible the ship sailed by Madeira or the Canary Islands and next the Cape Verde islands, but otherwise the ship either had to more-or-less hug the coastlines (the west coast of Europe, the coast of Brazil from Recife to Rio de Janeiro and the coast around Cape Horn) anyway, or, between Rio de Janeiro and Cape Horn and on the segments leading across the equator, cross a wide expanse of ocean without a lighthouse in sight. ‑‑Lambiam 09:29, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Great circles are shortest, loxodromes are easier. Navigating by loxodrome, you only have to keep track of direction; on great circles, you have to keep track of two factors out of direction, speed, latitude and longitude. On this voyage, the difference in distance is small. Astronomical navigation is nice, but depends on seeing the stars (or at least the sun). From Drammen to Spain in late autumn and through the Strait of Magellan and along the southern Chilean coast, clouds are all but guaranteed.

The Strait of Magellan is a shortcut, but the frequent headwinds and limited room for tacking don't make it very convenient. The alternative is worse though: the Drake Passage is one of the roughest seas on earth. It's almost impossible to pass westbound by sailing ship and if you succeed, you want to turn north ASAP, but how do you know you passed it if you can't determine your longitude under overcast skies? The Strait of Magellan is just safer. Similarly along the Chilean coast up to 47°S, the open ocean may be slightly faster, but is very rough, so one could opt for the fjords instead.

So, great circles or loxodromes approximating the shortest route, with some deviations for more convenient winds or to avoid dangerous waters. Drammen to Finistère has variable wind, mostly from the west. One could tack or just wait a few days for the wind to turn; much easier and only takes a little time.

According to Den Helder weather station (data available from KNMI), the wind was on 27 October 1880 easterly, first weak but increasing to a wind pressure of 15 kgf/m². I think that's 15 m/s in modern units. In the night to the 28th, the wind turned south and remained strong, from late evening on the 28th until the morning of the 29th the wind was SW, slowing to 6 m/s, but in the afternoon the wind turned NNW and increased to 24 m/s, a strong gale. During the following night, the wind turned W and slowly weakened. I assume that by then the ship had left the area.

From Finistère to the Costa de la Muerte the wind gets slightly more convenient, wind direction is even better towards the Canary Islands. Then passing Cape Bojador, once the point of no return for sailing ships along the Western Saharan coast, the NE trade wind and ocean current pick up and push the ship to the doldrums near Fernando de Noronha. High temperatures in the interior of South America in the southern summer cause a low-pressure area, turning the normal SE trade winds to NE, helping the ship to near Porto Alegre. After passing the southern horse latitudes, the winds turn mostly west (not too bad) and pick up, as the ship nears the Strait of Magellan. The wind is variable, but mostly westerly, in the strait, but after that the ship can turn north. Strong westerly winds make it hard to head for the open ocean straight away, so one hugs the coast to Valparaiso as winds gradually turn south. Valparaiso is also convenient for resupply. Follow the SE trade winds, but one may wish to stay slightly NE of the great circle route. Cross the doldrums again near the Galápagos Islands, then turn WNW (better than NNW on the great circle from Cape Horn), using the NE trade winds to Hawaii. It's about 16000 nautical miles, barely more than the absolute shortest route, and mostly broad reach.

If you can find a diary of a traveller or, even better, the official logbook, that would be good, but otherwise you can't get a much more detailed description than my guess above. PiusImpavidus (talk) 19:35, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for putting so much time into that. Viriditas (talk) 22:48, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@PiusImpavidus: I forgot to note, this route was traveled by at least five known ships from 1880 to 1883: Two ships, the Beta (1880) and the Musca (1880), left from Drammen, Norway; three ships, the Cedar (sometimes spelled Ceder, 1881), the Ioloni (1882), and the Ehrenfels (1883), left from Bremen, Germany. My understanding is that they all took similar routes. I wonder if any of these logs are available. The Bremen article says "Norddeutscher Lloyd (NDL), founded in Bremen in 1857, became one of the world's leading shipping companies." Another book I'm looking at says they reduced the transit time from 4-6 months to only 2 using steamship propulsion, which other articles say began in 1870, but likely didn't take off until the late 19th century? This question dovetails with another article I've been working on and off concerning pineapple mania, which was said to diminish with the rise of steamship transportation, which made the pineapple accessible to everyone instead of a luxury item. In any case, the steamer Ehrenfels took two months to travel from Bremen to Kauai, which saved a lot of lives, but a measles epidemic onboard still killed around 50 people, mostly children. Viriditas (talk) 23:47, 4 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Viriditas: are we talking about the barque Beta built in 1864 as Sir John Lawrence? Are you intending to write an article? Mjroots (talk) 08:30, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that. There's a lot of conflicting and hard to find info, so it's not clear that it's the same ship. You can see another version here. That Beta is said to be 846 tons rather than the 879 grt in your Beta, but I'm not sure that's meaningful. Maybe you can look into it? Very little is known abut that ship. Whereas, there is much more known about the German ships. I couldn't access the sjohistorie.no link. Viriditas (talk) 08:56, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Viriditas: Try accessing sjøhistorie via the link at WP:SHIPS/R#Country specific sources. Enter Beta in the search box, then look for the entry under "Bark Beta bygget 1864" (7th one down for me). Mjroots (talk) 09:24, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, yes. That's it. I think you found her. Viriditas (talk) 09:27, 5 May 2025 (UTC)[reply]