PASSAGES. 



4 7 



passed well to the westward, if the sun is advancing to the southward, 

 but, on the contrary, it is always safer to navigate well to the eastward 

 during the advance of the sun to northern declination. These direc- 

 tions are intended for all kinds of vessels, as well the slow as the fast, 

 and notwithstanding the latter may pass with less difficulty, yet it is 

 beyond a question that even with them a much cphcker passage 

 would be the result of taking the most favorable route. Another rea- 

 son is to be found in the necessity there seems to be to avoid enter- 

 ing the great Equatorial Stream before reaching the equator. We 

 found it cutting the equator about the meridian of 18° west, at an 

 angle of fifty degrees ; and although our experience may not determine 

 its actual northern boundaries at all times, yet it is probable it does not 

 vary very much from that here given ; consequently, vessels passing 

 the equator in a more western longitude, would enter it before reach- 

 ing the equator, and be subject to its influence much sooner. By 

 taking a course to the eastward, it would be entered later; but it is to 

 be considered whether the opposing northern current, in a more 

 eastern longitude, is not as disadvantageous. On the other hand, 

 by crossing at the meridian of 18°, it is evident that the Equatorial 

 Stream would not be encountered until the winds from the southeast 

 had become so well established, that its influence would be less felt, 

 and it would have but comparatively little effect on a vessel, until 

 she had the means of quickly passing beyond its influence, and 

 therefore be subject to it the shortest possible time ; on this account 

 I am decidedly of opinion, that, taking the winds and currents into 

 consideration, the nearer a vessel, bound to the south across the equa- 

 tor, can cut the meridian of 18°, the better, at all seasons of the year, 

 though during the favorable monsoon I would myself try, and even 

 recommend, a more western meridian. 



Much has been said about " Great Circle Sailing" and it has 

 been recommended particularly on this route. Although I do not 

 wish to dispel the illusion, or to detract from the merits of the officer to 

 whom is assigned the origin of "Great Circle Sailing," I cannot but do 

 justice to the prior right of Mr. John Garnett,* a distinguished mathe- 

 matician, of New Brunswick, New Jersey, whose devotion to nautical 

 science was well known, and who edited and published the first edition 



* In the Tran. Am. Phil. Society, vol. vi, p. 303 (Old Scries), August 25th, 1807, is 

 a notice by Mr. Garnett, of the "Principle of Sailing in the Arc of a Great Circle," with 

 a Chart, for which he was awarded the Magellanic Gold Medal. 



