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On Tuesday, March 4, 2003, at 03:40 AM, George Huxtable wrote:

> In an attempt to get a definitive answer (in terms of 18th century
> practice) I have examined the Beaglehole edition of Cook's journal of
> his first circumnavigation (1768 - 1770) in Endeavour, skimming
> through for references to backing and veering. Most of that voyage was
> in Southern latitudes.
>
> I have not found a single mention by Cook of "backing" of the wind.
> However, he used "veering" 13 times, all when he was well into the
> Southern hemisphere.

 From John Harland's "Seamanship in the age of Sail" (Naval Institute
Press: 1985) -- an excellent summary of how ships were sailed from
1600-1860 -- he has written on page 12:

Veering, hauling and backing of the wind.

When the wind shifts around, so as to come from further aft, the modern
convention is to say it has 'veered'.  An older alternative was to say
the wind 'larges'.  If the wind draws forward, 'scants' as the
old-timers put it, it is said to 'haul'.  Thus the wind 'hauls
forward', but 'veers aft'.  I do not know how ancient this rule is, but
I have seenit as far back as 1878 (Uggla).  To find the principle
violated, the wind 'hauling aft' is not unusual in the old accounts,
some preferring 'draw aft', and 'haul forward'.  Along the same lines,
convention has it that the wind 'veers' when it shifts to the right or
clockwise, as one looks at the horizon, or with the sun.
Counter-clockwise movement is called 'backing'.  This is another area
where some confusion exists, some authorities considering 'haul' as
synonymous with 'veer' in this particular context.  Furthermore the
idea underlying 'backing' is that the wind is moving contrary to the
usual pattern of wind shifts, which in the Northern Hemisphere is
clockwise.  The exact opposite, however, is true in southern latitudes.
(Kemp; de Kerchove).  A wind which kept changing direction was said to
'chop about', and Uggla says that a wind which had shifted about was
said to have 'checked around'.  In Danish, there were different words
for a sudden marked change, vinden springer, 'the wind jumps', and a
gradual change, vinden skager sig, 'the wind checks [itself]'.  The
Elizabethan expression 'spring a-loof', meaning to turn abruptly to
windward is using 'spring' in this sense.  Skage literally means
'shake', but is closely connected with 'check' in its sea-sense.

Dan

   

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