Wooden Ships Help

Overview: Introductory information and how to navigate Wooden Ships.

Country Filter: Filter ships by country. Choose between British, Dutch, French, and Spanish ships. Only one country can be displayed at a time!

Weather Filter: Filter by weather observations to see weather patterns over the high seas. Choose between snow, thunder and lightning, rain, sea ice, hail, gusty winds, fog, and air temperature.

Wind Filter: Filter by both wind direction and wind speed to see wind patterns across the oceans.

Captain's Log: What observations were naval captains making on their voyages? Use this feed to cue into observations about weather, travel info, conflicts, life on board, or other encounters. Simply click on a hexbin.

Info Panel: Use the info panel to get a summary of weather conditions at sea. Hover over a hexbin to see corresponding air temp, wind speed, wind direction, and air pressure.

Change Projection and Reset Map: Change your projection from Robinson, a compromise project (yes, we know this isn't correct), to a cylindrical equal-area (the optimal choice for a hexbin choropleth), to a globe (otherwise known as snazzy eye candy).

Time Filter: See ships that were out at sea at certain points in time. Simply scroll the bar through time sequence. To adjust the time-period you wish to filter by, drag the bar at either end to resize.

Wooden Ships Overview

Wooden Ships explores European maritime activity and observations from 1750 to 1850. The data consists of logbook entries written by the captain of each ship. The location of each ship is spatially aggregated in hexagonal bins. Filter the map by country or time to better understand varying shipping patterns by colonial powers. Hover over the ships or hexbins to view summary weather statistics. Click a hexbin to view handwritten log entries about weather observations as well as candid events at sea from the captains! Select ships with particular weather or climatic features, such as temperature recordings or encounters with sea ice. Check out wind speed patterns across the Atlantic. This application will enhance your understanding of the geography and environmental history of maritime trade!

Data sources: Climatological Database for the World's Oceans 1750-1850 for digitized shipping logs, Natural Earth for line work, and The Noun Project for icons.

Cartographers/developers/designers/shipping enthusiasts: Scott Farley, Starr Moss, and Meghan Kelly.