How fast does a pirate ship go

The Navy's new budget request includes funds for two more high-speed vessels. Aluminum-hulled high-speed ships are not meant to take a beating like a traditional naval vessel I recall Rear Adm.

Jay Cohen , former director of the Office of Naval Research, describing experimental ships as "things that go fast and sink when you punch a hole in them" , but their high speed and shallow draft make them ideal for delivering supplies to primitive ports.

Topics Africa Arrrrr!!!! Yet the distance covered by the merchant ships was actually shorter. The book Ocean Passages for the World Great Britain : Hydrographic Department, explains more about sailing times and distances around the world.

The Caird Library holds five continuous editions, the third of which was published in This edition mentions that typical passage times from New York to the English Channel for a well-found sailing vessel of about tons was around 25 to 30 days, with ships logging miles per day on average. The distance between the English Channel and the Coast of America is roughly nautical miles.

The standard nautical mile is taken as feet 1. Speed at sea is measured in knots, a knot being one nautical mile per hour and unit of speed equal to one nautical mile which is defined as 1. Records as to the rate of sailing are of necessity very indefinite, the speed depending on so many varying circumstances, as it was mentioned earlier.

Nelson's passage to the West Indies and back was made at an average rate of about 4 knots. Riepl, Das Nachrichtenwesen des Altertums Leipzig introduces the last possible variation by reporting that Aristides went from Rome to Miletus in 14 days.

The passage says nothing of the sort. Seven days out from the Cyclades a killing took place and some unspecified time later the vessel arrived at Ithaca. Riepl, op. This passage too proves nothing of the sort. Nicander went to Aetolia, spent an undisclosed time there delivering his message, then proceeded to Phalerum.

The whole journey, including his stay at Aetolia, took 12 days. For other instances see below notes 7 , 17 , 20 , 32 , 38 , 47 , Riepl op. Kroll "Schiffahrt," R. Mohler, "Sails and Oars in the Aeneid," TAPA 79 56, note 29, who, on far too little evidence, concludes that ancient ships sailed as fast with the wind slightly ahead as with a fair wind.

When Warmington The Commerce Between the Roman Empire and India [Cambridge ] 51 tells us that the merchant who wanted to go from Alexandria to Rome could wait in Alexandria "until the direct sailing of cornships began in May" instead of taking the Alexandria-coast of Syria-Asia Minor route, he is talking nonsense. Casson 49, note 4, where it is pointed out that Nelson in met the identical winds encountered in a voyage described by Lucian.

Mohler op. In addition, I have used measurements based on the U. Navy Hydrographic Office charts of the Mediterranean. Pliny adds that this voyage as well as the Puteoli-Alexandria run listed below was done " mollissimo flatu.

Cato Maior Marius 8. The higher figure presumes that the voyage was made in constant sight of land. For the figure of which I have adopted see Philip op. They spent some time there, then embarked again and made Alexandria in 7 days. Since the point at which they landed is not precisely designated, my figure of is merely an estimate. Charlesworth and de Saussure op.

The distance is some over nautical miles and the arrival was on the sixth day. Dion's little fleet was driven before them from Syracuse to the Greater Syrtes. All hands were amazed when a fresh south wind sprang up to carry them back to Sicily; they never expected a wind from that direction in those waters. The trip took 3 days from the point where a capture was made and its had taken a day and a night to reach that point from Rhodes.

He not only reports it at one point as a voyage from Massilia to Egypt — which is a completely different affair, since the wind would then be favorable — but he reports it as taking 13 days 23 and Josephus, A.

He was held up by contrary winds at Chios. It is far more likely that it was sailing night and day, beating into the eye of the northwesterlies. It took Cicero three weeks to cross from Patras to Brindisi in 50 B. Aristides Orat. The ship that carried Paul from Malta to Rome had originally set out from Alexandria and been forced to spend the winter at Malta Acts There are several voyages which I have not included since it is impossible to determine the winds encountered during them.

There are, for example, the voyages reported by Herodotus 4. The speed seems to have been 2. His figures are based on a ship's average speed which in this case he overestimated; cf. How and Wells op.

Strabo Then there is the circumnavigation of Sicily to which we have references in Thucydides, Strabo and Plutarch. On such a course a ship would theoretically meet both favorable and unfavorable winds. Strabo 6. Since the distance is roughly nautical miles, the speed works out to 4. Plutarch Mor. Thucydides 6. Unquestionably he means traveling by day only cf. If we allow 15 hours a day for travel, he agrees with Strabo; if less, with Plutarch. In any event, all the figures indicate that, in going around Sicily, vessels met more fair winds than foul.

I have also omitted voyages that took less than a day. These are too short to be of value in computing averages. Paul needed 15 days according to the Western text of Acts to travel from Sidon to Myra. If the figure can be relied upon, it indicates that his ship probably laid over a good many nights since the distance is under nautical miles. The aphracti in which he sailed must have been very much like the little open sailboats which ply between the islands today.