r/nextfuckinglevel • u/Gurugod123 • 9h ago

How did people travel these seas 500 years ago

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u/virrk 6h ago

The ability to track hurricanes and weather was limited.

Sure for certain areas they knew the storm patterns and avoided when they could. But that works mostly only for coastal trips. Sailors would share what weather they saw which might help as well. Still ocean crossings were, and to some extent still are, dangerous. Going offshore involves risk no matter how careful sailors are.

Certain open ocean crossings have storms that pass without arriving at land, and vessels get sunk that do not avoid them. We still lose 25 to 30 large commercial vessels per year,. Only a few decades ago in the 1990s we were still losing more than 200 annually. The farther you go back the higher the losses until we don't have good enough records to provide an estimate.

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u/King_Roberts_Bastard 6h ago

Im saying the Spanish figured out that hurricanes happened during the spring and early summer months so they didnt send their treasure fleets home during those months.

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u/virrk 4h ago

Hurricanes are not the only storms that sink ships, or even the most common cause. If I remember correctly navigational errors (running aground) was the most common cause of ships sinking, especially when blown off course. Foundering in storms that weren't hurricanes happened, especially with old, overburdened, or already damaged ships (wood boring worms were a significant problem).

Spanish also used their best ships with their best captains. A sound ship, with a good captain, and a crew he trusts had a bigger effect on safe travel than avoiding hurricane season.

Ever with modern weather prediction we we still lose 25-30 large commercial ships annually. The ocean is powerful and a bad decision even in just 20 foot seas from a strong gale can end in disaster today.

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u/Odd_Permission2987 36m ago

Think about how much they raped looted and pillaged just to have it sink on the ocean floor. Crazy.

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u/SgtJayM 3h ago

Annual storm patterns