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I am sorry that my Internet comment does not meet your scholarly standards.
As I indicated, I am not an expert on this subject, but the little evidence I do know would suggest that a) there were more vessels in the Atlantic then than now; and b) that there were, in any case, enough ships on the ocean to make one wonder whether they reall…
I am sorry that my Internet comment does not meet your scholarly standards.
As I indicated, I am not an expert on this subject, but the little evidence I do know would suggest that a) there were more vessels in the Atlantic then than now; and b) that there were, in any case, enough ships on the ocean to make one wonder whether they really missed a lot of hurricanes (the original point).
An example to suggest why this might be the case:
The British merchant navy was (and maybe still is?) the biggest single national fleet. The UK government published a register of all UK commercial vessels in international trade from 1849-1977. Some of these lists have been digitized by Google Books and other entities. The 1858 version lists about 40,000 ships (https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nOkNAAAAQAAJ&dq=MERCANTILE+NAVY+LIST&pg=PA1&hl=en#v=onepage&q&f=false). The 1948 edition shows fewer than 15,000 vessels--the number fell by almost two-thirds (https://collections.mun.ca/digital/collection/mha_mercant/id/38658/rec/198).
There is indeed greater tonnage crossing the seas now than before, as I said. But the kind of evidence I cited suggests it is carried in fewer, bigger ships. In any case--again--the point is that there was an absolute crapload of ships on the sea in the 19th century, and it seems odd to posit from the get-go, as these folks did, that they somehow missed tons of hurricanes.
International trade is not directly translatør to ocean going vessels. We know that today there are around 35.000 deep sea vessels that cross the oceans. Trading vessels above 500 GRT number around 90.000. In all there are probably more than 150.000 vessels trading somewhere.
Most ships used to trade along the coast and within regions. The trade between continents has most definitely increased during the 20th century. As I stated previously, it is not just a matter of the nummer of vessels but also the speed at which they travel. The amount of goods transported today is manyfold the trade before 1900, and even though ships are bigger they also do more trips.
In previous years, ships used to stay for weeks in ports and they spent more time crossing the sea. Today they cross the oceans faster and stay only days in port, thus the total number of vessels at sea at any given time and location is probably much higher than before 1900.
You are of course free to keep to your own anecdotes.