Meldrum’s 14 Factors Claiming Proof of an Apalachicola, Florida, landing site for Lehi – Part I

It is interesting that David Hocking and Rod L. Medrum, very adamant Heartland theorists, claim their fourteen factors are the basis of their belief that the Florida Panhandle is where Lehi landed. These 14 factors are far from proving anything and, in fact, show just the opposite—that Lehi could not have made such a trip.

The first problem lies in Meldrurm’s first three factors, which are;

1. Navigational Proof: Phoenicia 2009 Expedition;

2. Length of voyage: 4-6 months vs. 14-18 months;

3. Time of Year: Leave in Sept or Oct. Land in March or April?

The Phoenicia ship, a recreation of an early Phoenician ship

 

First of all, the Expedition of which they speak is the three-year voyage around Africa of Phoenician mariners in the employ of the Egyptian Pharaoh Necho between 610 and 595 BC, who, after calling off the construction of a canal between the Nile and the Arabian gulf, sent out a fleet of ships manned by a Phoenician crew with orders to sail west about and return to Egypt and the Mediterranean by way of the Straits of Gibraltar.

These Phoenicians sailed from the Arabian gulf into the Southern Ocean, and every autumn put in at some convenient spot on the coast, sowed a patch of ground, and waited for next year's harvest. Then, having taken in their grain, they put to sea again, and after two full years rounded the Pillars of Heracles in the course of the third year, and returned to Egypt. These Phoenicians had succeeded in circumnavigating Africa on a 3-year expedition some 2000 years before the Portuguese accomplished the same thing.

Today, sailors wanting to travel north from Cape Town head out to sea. First, hitching a ride on the south-easterly tradewind; then, having limped through the doldrums, catching the north-east trades and circling back over the top of the Azores.

The Phoenicians, making mankind’s first journey through the South Atlantic, would not have known about these prevailing winds and currents. Thus, they would have hugged the coast in more manageable winds and currents. In fact, the idea that the Phoenicians might have sailed out into the wide blue yonder is almost unthinkable—yet, this is the route the modern ship, Phoenicia, chose to follow as they attempted duplicating the course of these early mariners.

Phoenician Settlement Colonies

 

It should be kept in mind that the Phoenicians were not explorers—in fact, would have laughed at the idea. They were trade merchants. They learned that by subsidizing the movement of their people to locations around the Mediterranean opened up endless trading partners. The selling and trading of items to these newly opened markets (the towns they caused to be settled) added to the market where they could sell, buy and trade.

In order to do this, they had to increase the distance from their home in coastal Lebanon for these new settlements, which led to their maritime interests, which led to building of ships, and eventually to their expertise in sailing. In time they sailed throughout the Mediterranean, settling all along the northern and especially the southern coasts. They even braved the Atlantic by passing through the Pillars of Hercules, and settling towns along the Pacific shores of what we now call Morocco and Portugal.

However, they were not interested in sailing for sailing sake—their interest was always in seeing if there were towns already established that they could open up trade agreements with, or settling their own people. The reason the Phoenicians would have agreed to circumnavigate Africa, was in the interest of investigating new markets or search out areas where they could settle new towns.

As for the reason why the early Phoenicians would have sailed the “inland route,” is because a vessel sailing from Cape Town has no problem travelling up the desert coast of Namibia—while the sea there is often very rough and the winds are frequently above gale force, they almost always blow from the south. Moreover, a strong current flows up from Antarctica, following the coast northwards. 

(Blue Arrow) The early and very experienced Portuguese mariners fought their way through the Cape of Storms (now called Cape of Good Hope) from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, then took the winds along the coast northward to the Equator, (Blue Dotted Arrow) then into winds moving against them; (White Dotted Line) Winds toward Africa and the Caribbean beyond—early Portuguese sailors learned to take this course toward Brazil and loop around to the Straits of Hercules; (Blue Dotted Arrows) Winds toward Brazil across the Atlantic

 

A vessel carrying only a simple square sail and moving downwind, might easily journey along the west coast of Africa as far as the equator. Thereafter, however, the vessel would begin to find itself bucking the wind, and able to proceed only with the greatest of difficulty. On the other hand, to head out to sea, away from land without any knowledge of winds and currents in unknown waters would have been unthinkable—besides, this outward current was not even discovered until the end of the 15^th Century AD. In fact, its detection was completely by accident when navigator Bartolomeu Dias was blown off course down into the Southern Ocean when attempting to round Africa.

Regarding Meldrum’s first three points, he uses the 2009 voyage of the Phoenicia, a 70-foot replica of what is believed to be a 600 BC wooden ship, built in Syria by the Mariner Philip Beale, leader of the Phoenicia Expedition—the purpose being recreating the first circumnavigation of Africa, believed to have taken place some 2500 years ago. By no means was this Beale’s first risky maritime adventure. At the age of 18, he sailed from Fiji and Papua New Guinea as a crew member on Operation Drake, a two-year round the world voyage expedition for the Young Explorers. In his early twenties, he saw an ancient Indonesian schooner in Java, and commissioned a replica of that 2,800-year-old boat in 1979 and sailed it to Africa. He also headed the Borobudur expedition in 2004 sailing a replica eighth century boat from Indonesia to West Africa, then built a double outrigger vessel, and sailed it successfully Indonesia to West Africa via Madagascar and the Cape of Good Hope.

In 2005 he was honored by Indonesian President, for Services to Indonesian Culture for leading the Borobudur Ship Expedition—a voyage that some professional sailors’ thought was too dangerous and would be impossible to achieve in such a limited vessel. He also spent 12 years in the British Navy, and is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and a member of the Scientific Exploration Society.

It would be hard, as these theorists do, to claim what Beale could do at sea could by done by Lehi, a man with no maritime knowledge and a crew with no maritime experience.

(See the next post, “Meldrum’s 14 Factors Claiming Proof of an Apalachicola, Florida, landing site for Lehi – Part II,” regarding an evaluation of Meldrum’s 14 factors, and why a voyage around Africa for Lehi and a landing in Florida is ill-founded)