NavList:

This must be the insomniac thought...woke up at 3:30 and it popped into my head.... added to my earlier rumination I guess.....

We spoke of whalers.....these sailing vessels would leave on voyages of years.....at the same time the 19th century navigator might have to cope with the newly minted fast steam steam liner.

In 1838 the "Great Western" crossed the Atlantic in 15.5 days, and by the 1860's times were 8-9 days.  In 1907 the Mauratania crossed the atlantic in 4.5 days.

Obviously routes became more precise with less sailors "drift and "set" (improving DR)  but it must also have put stress on the navigator knowing he was perhaps planning on going into say...Liverpool on a bad North Atlantic winter week with few or no sights. You could have crossed half an Ocean in that week, and Liverpool just has this little issue with a really big rock in the way approaching from New York.....called Ireland....  You want to know you are approaching the coast & and piloting waters pretty precisely.  Liverpool has restricted approaches from either end......and accuracy becomes a grave concern.......

The advantage of crossing large territory fast, I guess is you are more likely to clear the clouds once in awhile, but the warmer Atlantic starting in hurricane season in the fall facing colder polar air as winter aproaches produces days of gales and poor visibilty for large areas approaching England.

Outrunning your last good sight can be done under sail too, its just the steamship sent me thinking that way. The 19th century for all but a twilight glimmer lacked radio communoication on ships..so radio tricks weren't available. Marconi didn't get the basics figured out until I think 1897......and it wasn't commonplace until after 1900.  Echo Sounders did not get invented till the first part of the 20th century (German records I think were 1913, while earlier mentions include 1904 in Norway ???) ......So you, your sights and DR must have felt pretty lonely at times......especially on a full passenger steamer..... worshiping a clock.