Heading Upstream / Stormwrack

[ericlboyd]

Hi all,

I've been looking at the rules for currents and boat speeds in Stormwrack, and they don't make much sense.

For reference, I googled the current speed of the Mississippi River. Apparently it averages 1.2 mph near the headwaters and 3 mph near New Orleans. The St. Lawrence Seaway, regarded as a fast-moving, difficult river, peaks at about 5 knots (5.6 mph).

I also googled a typical canoe speed (thinking of the early Native Americans). Apparently, 3 mph (half the speed of a walker) is typical.

So, now to Stormwrack, page 97.

Most of the small inland ships could not make it up the Mississippi, as they have a typical speed of 1, 1/2, or 2 mph.

So then I went and locked at current speeds on Stormwrack, page 10. Most unhelpfully, these are given in knots.

Light current is 1/2 knot which is 0.57 mph.
Vigorous current is 1-3 knots which is 1.15 to 3.45 mph.
Dangerous current is 4-6 knots which is 4.60 to 6.90 mph.
Irresistable current is 7-9 knots which is 8.06 to 10.36 mph.

So on a relative scale, the speeds sort of work. A 1.5mph boat could comfortably make its way upstream in a 0.57 mph current. However, a 1.5 mph or even 2 mph boat couldn't make it up most vigorous currents.

So, if you trust Stormwrack's assessment of currents, the boat speeds seem a touch low.

But if you trust real world current speeds, then Stormwrack's boat speeds seem way low.

Am I misunderstanding something? Anyone thought through revised rules?

--Eric

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by ericlboyd
I also googled a typical canoe speed (thinking of the early Native Americans). Apparently, 3 mph (half the speed of a walker) is typical.

Six miles per hour is a stiff pace for walking. Three per hour is my average and I’m a good hiker. A quick google search suggests 3-4 mph is average walking speed.

Meanwhile, 2.5 mph is my average for kayaking, but I’ve spent time with people who grew up paddling dugout canoes, and they’re much faster at it than I am. As a very rough guess, I’d say 4-5 mph would have been more typical for native peoples in smaller canoes.


Originally Posted by ericlboyd
So, now to Stormwrack….

For the most part I have no opinion of Stormwrack, and in general I wouldn’t trust the estimates of ship speeds in this or any other D&D book.

However, in this case they seem to be roughly accurate, in that it’s often very difficult for small craft to make any progress upstream, and sometimes it’s impossible. In the case of the Mississippi, small boats often had to make their way upstream by poling, which is slow and tremendously labor-intensive.

Other options included warping, which involved hauling on ropes attached to an anchor (similar to kedging) or cordelling, which meant the crew went ashore with ropes and pulled the boat as if they were mules on a towpath. Sometimes the boats were delayed for weeks, depending on wind and current; and sometimes they had to be abandoned altogether.

Because of this, most of the flatboats that carried farm goods down the Mississippi were broken up for scrap at New Orleans, and the voyageurs often spent the next few months walking home, which was preferable to spending those months cordelling upstream. So in this case, Stormwrack is accurate in that even milder currents can be insurmountable if you’re trying to go upriver.