Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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A Remarkable Instance Is
Related Of The Velocity Of The Currents In The Gulf, To The Southward
Of Fernando Po.
In the month of June, a vessel performed the passage
between Prince's Island and St. Thomas in twenty hours, which
generally occupies from eight to ten days.
The distance is about
ninety three miles, and the vessel must have averaged from four to
six miles per hour. The harmattan is said not to extend to the
southward of Fernando Po, but this has not yet been fully
ascertained.
The passage through the gulf from Fernando Po to Sierra Leone, is
generally extremely long and tedious, owing to the prevalence of
calms and the different currents. It is usually made either by
running to the southward and getting into the southeast trade, or by
keeping in shore, as far as Cape Palmas, so as to benefit by the
landwinds. The former method is generally recommended by the
merchantmen as being safer and quicker, for a vessel adopting the
latter, is more under the dangerous influence of the currents,
besides being obliged to keep close to the shore; it is also adopted
by the merchantmen in their homeward voyage. Sometimes vessels by
taking a mean between these two methods, get between two different
winds, by which means they lose the benefit of both, and are delayed
by calms and rains. This part, according to accurate information, is
at the distance of sixty miles from the land, so that vessels should
pass either far without or else within that distance on leaving
Fernando Po.
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