How did sea explorers communicate home?

bobbyss

I have often wondered how exactly sailors on voyages in middle ages (and later) get news from home ? Would Drake, Columbus, etc have sent letters / received letters from England/Spain?

Balmed Out

Presumably one would leave mail in ports that would be carried on by any vessel going in the correct direction

Manach

From what I rememeber from the novels of Patrick O'Brian, basically handed over packets to ships going in the required direction. There were unwritten customs that the mail should be respected. It had the issue of the amount of mail being stretched out, so usually a years worth arriving in one delvery.

pedroeibar1

Columbus was unlikely to meet another ship! (Would have ruined his day if he had!)

P.O'Brian quoted by Manach was correct. It was the ‘custom of the sea’ to exchange news and if possible letters when passing another ship. Whalers inevitably had the longest voyages and they had specific calling places, often deserted islands, where they used to stock up on fresh meat and 'greenstuff' to prevent scurvy. (Sometimes they introduced pigs to ensure a food source for future voyages.) At those places it was usual to leave/collect letters from a specific site, marked with a cairn/flagstaff. Messages were left in a glass bottle to prevent weather damage e.g. ‘Ship abc called on 1/2/3 – all well.’ A returning ship would then bring the content of that message home and pass on the news.

The use of a pineapple finial on a gatepost derives from the eighteenth century custom of the returned whaling captain, who placed a pineapple on his gatepost on his return to indicate he was ‘at home’ and others could call to obtain news. The pineapple thus became a symbol of hospitality and was adopted into general use as an architectural decoration.

bobbyss

pedroeibar1 wrote: »

Columbus was unlikely to meet another ship! (Would have ruined his day if he had!)

P.O'Brian quoted by Manach was correct. It was the ‘custom of the sea’ to exchange news and if possible letters when passing another ship. Whalers inevitably had the longest voyages and they had specific calling places, often deserted islands, where they used to stock up on fresh meat and 'greenstuff' to prevent scurvy. (Sometimes they introduced pigs to ensure a food source for future voyages.) At those places it was usual to leave/collect letters from a specific site, marked with a cairn/flagstaff. Messages were left in a glass bottle to prevent weather damage e.g. ‘Ship abc called on 1/2/3 – all well.’ A returning ship would then bring the content of that message home and pass on the news.

The use of a pineapple finial on a gatepost derives from the eighteenth century custom of the returned whaling captain, who placed a pineapple on his gatepost on his return to indicate he was ‘at home’ and others could call to obtain news. The pineapple thus became a symbol of hospitality and was adopted into general use as an architectural decoration.

Interesting and thanks for that.

Ships and sailors must have relied heavily on this and respected it accordingly.

You would wonder how much mail was sent and received by sailors on long voyages like for example Magellan on his last voyage. It is a fascinating area because news, when it did come, must have been months old and out of date when it arrived.
(I was unaware of the pineapple significance. Did you notice the pineapples on the extra long tables of Queen Elizabeth's dinner for Michael D at Windsor? I am presuming they were for presentation value but would they have had any hospitality significance I wonder )

chopper6

I thought the pineapple symbol was a celebration of John Tradescant.

pedroeibar1

chopper6 wrote: »

I thought the pineapple symbol was a celebration of John Tradescant.

Had not heard that before, JT was more of a plant collector. Columbus brought the first ones back with him and they were a big novelty. The first pineapple grown in England was in 1675 (in a Royal garden & King Chas II was painted with it) and Tradescant was dead by then.