last month we looked at an example of an erstwhile map style being applied to modern data. This time it ‘s the early way round. James Cheshire, of spatial analysis, has taken historical records of shipping routes between 1750 and 1800 and plotted them using modern map tools. The first map, above, shows journeys made by british ships. Cross-Atlantic ship lanes were among the busiest, but the number of vessels traveling to what was than called the East Indies – now India and South-East Asia – besides stands out when compared to Dutch and Spanish records ( see below ). If you look cautiously you can besides make out Captain Cook ‘s voyages, including his two ball-shaped circumnavigations.
dutch shiping routes 1750-1800 visualised using modern map technologies. illustration : James Cheshire, Spatial Analysis CLICK FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE This second map shows the same data for Dutch boats. The routes are close matched to the british ones, although the number of journeys is perceptibly smaller. You can besides see the disperse of journeys made by Dutch ships to Svalbard, off the North coast of the norwegian mainland .
spanish shiping routes 1750-1800 visualised using modern map technologies. exemplification : James Cheshire, Spatial Analysis CLICK FOR FULL SIZE IMAGE The third map shows spanish embark routes, and immediately stands out from the other two. spanish captains crossed the Atlantic further south than their british and Dutch counterparts, and a large numeral of journeys rounded Cape Horn before continuing up the West Coast of South America.
The data used to produce these maps was digitised by the Climatological Databse for the World ‘s Oceans and is available for public download here. If these visualisations have piqued your interest, Ben Schmidt, of Sapping Attention has used the lapp data to create two animations of the travel over time. In the video recording below, Ben has taken data for all three nations ‘ vessels between 1750 and 1850 and compressed them into one twelve month bridge to show seasonal patterns. Every travel has been visualised, with ships colour-coded by nation.
Who made these graphics? James Cheshire and Ben Schmidt respectively
Where can I find them? Spatial Analysis and Sapping Attention
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