Photo: The Resolution and the Adventure in Matavai Bay, Tahiti (detail). Captain Cook commanded the Resolution on his second (1771-5) and third voyages. © The National Maritime Museum, London.
The famous voyages undertaken by Captain James Cook charted unknown waters and drove imaginations, but now researchers are hoping they might also help predict the weather.
For the past three years a team of international experts has been examining a vast array of ships’ logs, from 1750 to 1850, and compiling the Climatological Database for the World’s Oceans (CLIWOC).
Working at the National Maritime Museum as well as from archives in the Netherlands, France and Spain, the team studied seamen's day-to-day accounts including logs kept on the famous voyages of the explorer Captain Cook.
By gaining an accurate picture of daily weather patterns over the oceans in the past, the researchers hoped to use that picture to predict future climate changes.
Photo: University of Sunderland climatologist, Dr Dennis Wheeler.
Dr Dennis Wheeler from the University of Sunderland led the research team’s investigations of 250-year-old ships’ logs.
"Although oceans cover 75 per cent of the earth's surface, we had very little information about the weather," said Dr Wheeler.
"These logs help us understand how climate changed in the past, which is a very useful tool when predicting climate change in the future."
"For the first time, with the exception of the Pacific, we can show the daily climate change for all major oceans between 1750 and 1850 and compare it to today’s conditions."
In the 16th and 17th centuries wind and weather were used to help navigate ships around the world’s oceans. Ships’ officers needed to maintain very accurate records of the weather and updated their logs daily and sometimes hourly.
Photo: Captain James Cook's voyages helped to chart unknown waters, but could they help predict the weather? © The National Maritime Museum, London.
As a result there are thousands of records in international archives observing wind strength and direction and the state of the sea and sky.
The logs came from British, Dutch, French and Spanish archives, all countries with vast empires. Their ships would sail all over the world, thus providing a comprehensive record of daily weather conditions on a global scale.
Dr Wheeler was joined by colleagues from a host of international organisations including the University of Madrid, the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute, the University of East Anglia and the University of Mendoza in Argentina.
Although the project is now finished, the team is hoping to receive funding to allow them to look at the vast amount of logbooks, which have yet to be examined.
