Friday, March 29, 2013

One More Unknown Factor About 30º South Latitude

In addition to what has been covered in the last three posts about the uniqueness of the west coast of South America regarding Lehi landing around the 30º South Latitude, there is one more unknown fact that would not have been known to Joseph Smith in 1829. And that fact was not really discovered until many years later—and that is the currents of the Southern Ocean that lead directly to the 30º South Latitude.
While this has been mentioned here many times, it is not only an extremely significant part of movement on the seas of a sailing ship, especially in 600 B.C., it is exactly what Nephi wrote in his record about being “driven forth before the wind towards the promised land” (1 Nephi 18:8). While Joseph Smith would have understood about a sailing ship being driven before the winds, he would not have know what winds and currents existed in the Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean, Pacific and Southern Oceans. In fact, this information was not clearly understood until the late nineteenth century, and not even suspected until around the eighteenth century.
With China to the north and Australia to the south, India to the west and the islands of the South Pacific Ocean to the east, the area of Indonesian archipelago is scattered with 18,307 islands through which Theorists claim Lehi sailed
While most Theorists ignore this simple, but clearly stated fact in Nephi’s account, and also what is known today about these currents and winds between Arabia and the Western Hemisphere, one can only wonder how these Theorists think the Lehi Colony traveled to the Land of Promise. Mesoamerican Theorists glibly take Lehi across the Indian Ocean toward Indonesia, through the thousands of islands of that area, then into the South Pacific and through thousands of more islands toward Central America, which would actually be traveling against winds and currents all the way!
As can be seen, the currents and winds moving through Indonesia, move from east to west, which would place a sailing vessel moving from west to east in opposition of these winds and currents
The problem is, they are so convinced that Mesoamerica is the location of the Land of Promise, that they give little thought to whether or not the Lehi Colony could have sailed from Arabia to there in 600 B.C. in a weather ship with fixed sails that allowed the vessel to be “driven forth before the wind.” However, to seamen as last as the 16th century, winds and currents determined where a sailing ship could travel and where it could not. Before the North Atlantic Gyre was discovered by Christopher Columbus in the late 1400s, no European sailing vessel was ever able to broach the Atlantic Ocean westward beyond the Azores.
The Azores are 930 miles west of Lisbon Portugal, and were known in 1340 A.D., but not officially discovered until 1431 A.D.; The Canary Islands (Fortunate Islands) are about 300 miles off the African west coast, and were known to the Phoenicians, Greeks, Carthaginians and the Romans in B.C. times, and “discovered” by Europeans in 1336 A.D.; Cape Verde is about 400 miles off the African coast (Dakar), and was discovered by the Portuguese in 1456 A.D., but references to it might suggest a last century B.C. period
This gyre is one of five major oceanic gyres and stretches across the North Atlantic from near the equator almost to Iceland, and from the east coast of North America to the west coasts of Europe and Africa. The currents that compose the North Atlantic Gyre include the Gulf Stream in the west, the North Atlantic Current in the north, the Canary Current in the east, and the Atlantic North Equatorial Current in the south. This gyre is particularly important for the central role it plays in the thermohaline circulation, bringing salty water west from the Mediterranean Sea and the north to form the North Atlantic Deep Water, and overfall forms the Sargasso Sea, noted for its still waters and dense seaweed accumulations.
The North Atlantic Gyre. The Canary Islands are in the lower right of the gyre and, as can be seen, a ship leaving that area would be driven across the Atlantic toward the Caribbean Islands where Columbus landed. Also, ships trying to sail due west from Spain or England would run headlong into these opposing winds and currents and never get out to sea
To what degree Columbus understood this gyre is unknown, however, he did understand that down around the Canary Islands the current turned westward, and once in the Western Hemisphere, he understood that he had to travel northward to pick up the returning current that traveled eastward, thus allowing him to sail to and from the Americas. A lack of this knowledge kept the Europeans from traveling westward into the Atlantic from the first period of sailing.
Theorists can make claims that Lehi sailed this way or that, however, there were two things against that—winds and currents. As an example, in May 1527, Alvaro de Saavedra Ceron was dispatched with two ships by Hernan Cortez from Mexico to sail to the Philippine Islands. After conducting his business there, Saavedra attempted to sail back to Mexico, crossing the Pacific Ocean from the Philippines to Mexico; however, he failed at this because the currents and winds moved in the opposite direction. He lost one ship, and after four years of failed attempts, died in his final effort to cross the Pacific back to Mexico in 1531. His crew finally sailed in the opposite direction with the winds and arrived in Mexico from the east.
The winds and currents move westward across the Pacific from Mexico to the Philippines making Saarvedra’s westward trip an easy voyage; however, in trying to return, Saarvedra could not buck the winds and currents as he headed east in numerous attempts over a four year period
When these Theorists claim Lehi sailed through Indonesia against all these winds and currents in a ship built for deep-water sailing and not simple coastal navigation, it would simply be impossible to accomplish in 600 B.C., and would go against Nephi’s claim that they were “driven forth before the wind.” In addition, to claim Lehi island-hopped across the Pacific through Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, which by the way, contains a total of 25,000 islands, is another foolish concept. First of all, the initial area to be covered would be the islands of Melanesia, which are more compact, with distances of only five to ten miles between most, and few having as much as sixty miles between. One might wonder, seeing these tropical paradise islands of Melanesia, with constant temperatures  between 70- and 80-degrees, pass by every few miles that Laman, Lemuel, and the sons of Ishmael might not want to rebel once again, take control of the ship, and turn into one of these islands.
Arrows show the wind direction across the Pacific. Note how the location of the islands mentioned all show an east to west wind direction, which drives the current even more westerly on a more even basis
The point of all this is simply that when someone begins discussing a location of the Land of Promise, one should consider all the other factors involved in the possibility of Lehi sailing to that location based upon the winds and currents that would have driven Nephi’s ship “forth before the wind.” After all, saying something is not the same as it being possible to accomplish. Nor can one rely upon old trade routes since trading vessels were mostly flat bottomed, coast vessels, lacking the strength of design and building methods to withstand the waves and high seas in the deep ocean.

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