Speed of sailing ship 1855

[Top-of-the-hill]

   If a fairly small Royal Navy ship left Sydney on 6th August, would it really have reached Pitcairn on 17th August. At a very rough calculation, I think it is about 4 to 5000 miles. The wind maps I have found are not clear on this bit of ocean.

[Sandblown]

https://shipstamps.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7401

The above Link describes one sailing ship, 1850s voyage, from Sydney to Pitcairn. The length of the voyage appears to be well over two months. Eleven days (6th-17th August) seems improbable.

[GrahamSimons]

Frigates could achieve 14 knots under sail, but that was a maximum and would depend on wind strength and direction. Sailing into the wind they would need to tack, so speed made good would be far less.

[Rena]

You really need somebody with sailing skills to answer your question but until that somebody comes along, I think  it could probably do the journey in the time stated.

I was born and bred in a busy English port and our school lessons included various ocean currents and what type of wind, especially "trade winds",  blew where.   As land lubbers, we only know that the sea tide goes in and out on our shores but experienced seafairers  would have more information.

The ocean going naval ship would have relied on the North Westerly winds coming off the coast of east Australia known as "westerly trade winds" and I'm sure the captain would have had as much canvas sail flying from his mast as possible if he had any deadline to meet.  Additionally The combination of Earth's gravity and the gravitational pull of the moon creates a phenomenon called tidal force, which is what causes our ocean tides to change - hence if the tidal currents plus the westerlies are favourable, then a journey could be longer or shorter than the norm. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westerlies

[Rena]

Frigates could achieve 14 knots under sail, but that was a maximum and would depend on wind strength and direction. Sailing into the wind they would need to tack, so speed made good would be far less.

Knots   Kilometers per hour
1 knots   1.85 kph
2 knots   3.70 kph
3 knots   5.56 kph
4 knots   7.41 kph

[Top-of-the-hill]

  "The above Link describes one sailing ship, 1850s voyage, from Sydney to Pitcairn. The length of the voyage appears to be well over two months. Eleven days (6th-17th August) seems improbable."

   Sandblown - this is the episode I am investigating, but the ship I am interested in is the RN vessel Juno, which went there the year before the Morayshire.
   Rena, I thought the Westerly winds would play a part, but could not quite make sense of the charts I found. I will need to do some maths on knots/kilometres!

[Sandblown]

https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/library-archive/18th-century-sailing-times-between-english-channel-coast-america-how

The above Link provides some mid 19th Century voyage times, for ships, that might be of use. Although directed to crossings from the UK to America, comparisons of sailings from Sydney to Pitcairn could be approximated from the information provided.

[mazi]

The 1844 built “Juno” sailed from Australia to Cape Horn in 31 days, pitcairns are about half way, so it may be possible.

The Cutty sark could travel at 17.5 knots, about 20 miles an hour so 11days is mathematically possible.

A navy frigate built for speed may be able to better that.


Mike

[Top-of-the-hill]

  Mike -where did you find that about the Juno? And when did the voyage take place? I have been trying to work out which way she came home in 1857, and I suspect it was not that way.
   My great gr father was on that voyage as a newly joined sailor, and the more I read, the more I discover it was not a happy ship.