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. 2019 Jul 2:25:104188.
doi: 10.1016/j.dib.2019.104188. eCollection 2019 Aug.

Database of historic ports and coastal sailing routes in England and Wales

Eduard J Alvarez-Palau  1   2 , Oliver Dunn  2
Affiliations

Database of historic ports and coastal sailing routes in England and Wales

Eduard J Alvarez-Palau et al. Data Brief. .

Abstract

This data paper presents a reconstruction of historical ports and coastal routes in England and Wales during the age of the sailing ship, ending at the beginning of the twentieth century. The dataset was created by an amalgamation of twenty different sources, including geographical data, primary sources and secondary literature. Ports found in historical documents were listed by year of appearance and georeferenced. Ports that appear in multiple sources were listed only once. Coastal routes between ports were drawn based on navigation charts and bathymetry data, distinguishing five categories with different characteristics. Visibility from the coast was deduced from elevation rasters and lighthouse locations. Subsequently both ports and coastal routes were checked using topological rules to ensure the connectivity of the network. The data is provided in shapefile format with all the attributes and can be analysed using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for different types of geographical and historical studies.

Keywords: Ports; coastal routes; historical geography; sailing ships; transport infrastructure.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Ports with one or more mentions within the sources used. Those places marked as dark blue (recurrent ports) are mentioned in at least nine out of eleven sources. Own work.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Number of appearances of each port across different sources. Own work.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Temporal coverage of each source considered in our study. See Table 2 to identify each acronym to its source. Own work.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Ports with harbour acts granted by parliament. On the left panel, ports are classified according to the year of their first act. On the right panel, the size of the dots is plotted according to the number of acts involving each port. Own work.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Coastal routes classified by category. Own work.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Map of lighthouses with night-time visibility buffers in 1690 (left) and 1830 (right). Own work.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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