It's extraordinary and enlightening when you apply modern data modeling to delve into the mists of history. James Cheshire and Ben Schmidt took 18th century British, Dutch, and Spanish shipping records to produce these spectacular visual representations of the routes being sailed.

Here's what British shipping was up to, 1750-1800 (click image for enlarged version):

Here's what you are looking at: Cross-Atlantic shipping lanes were among the busiest, but the number of

Read More