Ship speed increases from 1750-1830 at varying wind strengths

[ObiQuiet]

This research quantifies the advances made in ship speed (both merchant and naval) over the time period we're interested in:

https://voxeu.org/article/speed-under-sail-during-early-industrial-revolution

"What explains these substantial improvements in British ships? The jump in the 1780s is due to the copper plating of hulls which stopped fouling with weed and barnacles, and over the entire period there were continuous improvements in sails and rigging. A big contribution after 1790 came from the increasing use of iron joints and bolts instead of wooden ones (as well as replacing traditional stepped decks with flat ones fitted with watertight hatches) which made for structurally sounder ships that could safely set more sail, especially in stronger winds."

[Thonys]

8 hours ago, ObiQuiet said:

This research quantifies the advances made in ship speed (both merchant and naval) over the time period we're interested in:

https://voxeu.org/article/speed-under-sail-during-early-industrial-revolution

"What explains these substantial improvements in British ships? The jump in the 1780s is due to the copper plating of hulls which stopped fouling with weed and barnacles, and over the entire period there were continuous improvements in sails and rigging. A big contribution after 1790 came from the increasing use of iron joints and bolts instead of wooden ones (as well as replacing traditional stepped decks with flat ones fitted with watertight hatches) which made for structurally sounder ships that could safely set more sail, especially in stronger winds."

Interesting picture

if this is the case we can adjust some numbers for speed as valid speeds

the article is an article substantiated with historical thorough research about a certain time with many logs of shinging about a certain time, which gives a very good picture of the speeds that one can see as normal without shooting out in fantasy stories

if i look ad the picture it looks we have moderate speed as default in the game

We measure technological progress in oceanic shipping directly by using a large database of daily log entries from British, Dutch, and Spanish ships to estimate daily sailing speed in different wind conditions from 1750 to 1850. Against the consensus among economic (but not maritime) historians that the technology of sailing ships was fairly static during this time, we find that average sailing speeds of British East India Company and navy ships in moderate to strong winds rose considerably after 1770s. Driving this progress was the introduction of coppering in the 1780s but subsequent rises are probably due to a continuous evolution of sails and rigging, and improved hulls that allowed a greater area of sail to be set safely in a given wind. By contrast, speeds of Dutch and Spanish vessels were stagnant. Using separate data on crossing times of Atlantic mail packets, we find steady progress from the 1750s, followed by marked improvements when American packets appeared in the 1820s

In 1854 the Champion of the Seas averaged 19 knots over a day, a record not broken for 130 years.)if you translate it in ow speed it does 38 knots in the speedometer  as fastest speed, if you ask me, it is a legitimate matter to speed up in certain circumstances

so, it is a legitimate matter to increase the speed under certain circumstances and it is permissible to adjust the speed and conditions of the weather without historical imperfections

i am glad to see we can do something with the speed for the game if necessary  when i look at copper plating, what is in the game already

 

Edited February 2, 2018 by Thonys

[Bragan Benigaris]

Only to precise the graphs on the pictures: The speed figures in the labels are the wind speeds! The real speed above ground of the ship is on the y-axis and even in the strong breeze nearly no ship reached 8 kn. Our ow speed is much higher!

The "Champion of the Seas" was a clipper, she's not comparable to the ships in NA, despite perhaps the Privateer and Lynx.

[maturin]

This is the second paper the authors have published with this data set. Formerly they reached very different conclusions, where it was the light weather performance that saw the most improvement. I wonder what changed in the number-crunching.

The data should probably be controlled for larger ships, which is a much better explanatory factor for rough weather performance than the advent of iron nails.

Certainly high wind tactics got better as the 18th Century wore on, with better sailplans and reefing systems. I remember reading that after the Napoleonic Wars, English battleships drastically decreased the amount of ballast carried.

[Captain Jean-Luc Picard]

Good stuff, thanks for sharing.