Why didn't sailors stop more in the Azores?

[Daniel]

The conditions of sailing in the Golden Age of Piracy dictate some sailing strategies that appear obvious.

1. Since you can't accurately determine longitude, get in the latitude of your destination as soon as you can and sail due east or west to get there. This is exactly what most merchant ships did, according to the introduction of Johnson's General History of the Pirates.

2. If you want to sail eastward, do it in the latitude of the prevailing westerlies.

3. If you want to sail westward, do it in the latitude of the trade winds.

4. The calms of the horse latitudes (30 to 35 degrees, according to Wikipedia) and the equatorial doldrums slow you down, so cross them as quickly as possible by going straight north or straight south.

Given these strategies, the obvious way to get to the Guinea Coast or the Cape of Good Hope from America is to get inthe latitude of about 38 degrees North and take the prevailing westerlies to the Azores, top off your water and supplies, and then shoot either straight south from Santa Maria for Cape Verde, or southeast by south, aiming for the Gambia. This takes you directly south across the horse latitudes, and puts the trade winds on your beam or quarter.

However, I have never read of any captain who actually did this. Instead, most ships sailing from America seem to have stopped at Madeira. Kidd, for example, sailed the Adventure Galley from New York to Madeira, and Richard Zacks says taht this was the "standard southeasterly trade route of that age." But Madeira is at 32 and a half degrees North, smack in the middle of the horse latitudes. To get there by sailing on the latitude line, you have to spend almsot the whole voyage in the light, variable airs of the horse latitudes. If you stay north of the horse latitudes and take the westerlies across the Atlantic, then by the time you get to the meridian of Madeira your dead reckoning of longitude will surely be far off, and you stand an excellent chance of missing the island when you turn south.

Furthermore, Madeira is only a little over 500 nautical miles from Salé, the major Atlantic base of the Barbary corsairs (Santa Maria in the Azores is 900 nautical miles from Salé). So besides being harder to get to, Madeira's more dangerous. So why did Kidd and other sailors from the Americas prefer Madeira to the Azores?

[callenish gunner]

The Portuguese held the Azores and there was a significant trade with the slavers during the period which had the Azores fairly highly fortified during the GAOP. They were very protective of their trade position for provisions and fresh water. Many residents from the islands later moved to the Americas.

[Daniel]

The Portuguese held the Azores and there was a significant trade with the slavers during the period which had the Azores fairly highly fortified during the GAOP. They were very protective of their trade position for provisions and fresh water. Many residents from the islands later moved to the Americas.

True, but the Portuguese held Madeira too, so what difference did it make? Weren't the Portuguese generally friendly with the English and their colonists (because they both hated Spain)?

[callenish gunner]

<b>From what I've read the Azores were frequented on a regular basis by various ships bound for the New World Including the Dutch bound for their Caribbean holdings ...from what I gleaned from the histories of the islands the soil and weather was a bit too moist for good grape crops so they didn't produce the same levels of wines that Madeira did. If you're taking a crew of thirsty sailors on long voyages I'm sure many a captain chose to make for Madeira to take on stores. Many of the original settlers were rebels, criminals or outcasts from Europe and the British Isles.</b>

Edited February 24, 2010 by callenish gunner

[Guest]

I don't know the ansewer... but I alway thought

" the horse latitudes

Was a rather disturbing thing that happened.... and I don't even really care for horses......

If ye don't know... then look it up fer yerselfes ye lazy dogs.......

Why was it called the "Horse " latitude.....?

[Captain McCool]

"If wishes were horses, we'd all be eatin' steak"

-Jayne Cobb

...But I digress.

[Daniel]

Late update: I've been looking through Donnan's Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America. While evidence about the sailing routes is limited, I have found 1) no evidence whatsoever that the Azores were used as a stopping point, and 2) darn little evidence that Madeira was used as much as Zacks said it was, at least by sailors coming from the Americas.

There is one reference to slaves being sent from America to Cape Verde by way of Madeira. But there's also a ship captain protesting vigorously to the queen against the American colonial governors forcing him to post bond to touch at Madeira on his way to the Guinea coast. Besides that, the book has no evidence of Madeira being used as a way station for ships from America at all, although there are several cases where a ship went there just to buy slaves or the famous wine.

Cape Verde (Cape de Verd), on the other hand, is mentioned everywhere. There are at least a dozen references to ships stopping at Cape Verde, especially Maio and Santiago (Isle of May and St. Jago) before going on to the Guinea Coast proper. Often they picked up trade goods which they would later exchange for slaves in Guinea.

Many of the charter-parties and instructions to captains direct them to procced "direct to Africa" or "direct to Guinea," but I'm not sure whether this means that they were literally forbidden to deviate from a straight line course between New England and Guinea, or just means that they couldn't pursue intermediate voyages in the Indies, Europe or wherever.

Edited March 19, 2010 by Daniel

[Commodore Swab]

My family is from the Azores and yes I have sailed there. When the Azores were settled they were settled by anyone who would live there so long as they remained loyal to Portugal. Different people from different countries settled the Islands, if memory serves there was even an Island settled by Germans that spoke no Potuguese. All in all the Islands were an inhospital place with not much in the way of anchorages, a place to resupply if you must. The last battle between an American and British ship (1 vs. 4) if memory serves took place in Horta under the Portuguese fort.

[Daniel]

Here's a clue: some time before 1848, a Captain Maury suggested that ships leaving from New York bound for the equator should stand eastward to about 60 or 50 degrees west longitude before trying to make any southing; he believed this was the best way across the horse latitudes so long as the wind stayed fair for easting. So indeed ships from America did try to ride the westerlies for a good portion of the trip, but not so far as the Azores. After 1848, Maury changed his mind and suggested a shortest-distance great circle route to the equator, which proved much faster, not only because it was shorter but because the winds were much more favorable, the trade winds being stronger on the west side of the Atlantic than the east.

Of course, Maury had good chronometers and could pinpoint longitude; to attempt a great circle route from New York to the equator in pre-longitude days would have been daring indeed.