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The term originally derives from the early fourteenth century sense of trade (in late Middle English) still often meaning "path" or "track". [2] The Portuguese recognized the importance of the trade winds (then the volta do mar, meaning in Portuguese "turn of the sea" but also "return from the sea") in navigation in both the north and south Atlantic Ocean as early as the 15th century. [3]
Volta do mar" manoeuvre during Henry the Navigator's (c.1430-1460) lifetime: Atlantic winds (green), currents (blue) and approximate Portuguese sailing routes (red): the further south ships went, the wider off sailing required to return. Note that the boundary between the westerlies and the trade winds moves north in summer and south in winter.
The trade winds blow westward in the tropics, [10] and the westerlies blow eastward at mid-latitudes. [11] This wind pattern applies a stress to the subtropical ocean surface with negative curl across the north Atlantic Ocean. [12] The resulting Sverdrup transport is equatorward. [13]
Though often called rhumbs, they are better called "windrose lines": As cartographic historian Leo Bagrow states, "…the word [loxodromic or rhumb chart] is wrongly applied to the sea-charts of this period, since a loxodrome gives an accurate course only when the chart is drawn on a suitable projection. Cartometric investigation has revealed ...
In this context, the Portuguese discovered the two large volta do mar (meaning literally turn of the sea but also return from the sea) currents and trade winds of North and of South Atlantic Ocean (approximately in the first half and in the late 15th century respectively), that paved the way to reach the New World and return to Europe, as well ...
A third explanation, which simultaneously explains both the northern and southern horse latitudes and does not depend on the length of the voyage or the port of departure, is based on maritime terminology: a ship was said to be 'horsed' when, although there was insufficient wind for sail, the vessel could make good progress by latching on to a ...
A brig's square-rig also had the advantage over a fore-and-aft–rigged vessel when travelling offshore, in the trade winds, where vessels sailed down wind for extended distances and where "the danger of a sudden jibe was the large schooner-captain's nightmare". [13] This trait later led to the evolution of the barquentine. The need for large ...
A sea lane, sea road or shipping lane is a regularly used navigable route for large water vessels on wide waterways such as oceans and large lakes, and is preferably safe, direct and economic. During the Age of Sail , they were determined by the distribution of land masses but also by the prevailing winds , whose discovery was crucial for the ...