Meridians are semi-great circles on the Earth, joining the two poles. The other half of the same great circle forms yet another meridian.
Prime Meridian:
Is the meridian which passes through Greenwich. The other meridians are named East or West from the prime meridian.
Parallels of Latitude are small circles on Earth’s surface, the planes of which are parallel to the plane of the Equator. All parallels therefore run East-West.
In order to measure accurately the position of any place on the
surface of the earth, a grid system has been set up. It pinpoints
location by using two coordinates: latitude and longitude.
B. It is purely a human invention, but it is tied to two fixed points
established by earth motions: the poles, or ends of the earth's
rotational axis.
1. Longitude represents east-west location, and it is shown on a map
or globe by a series of north-south running lines that all come
together at the North Pole and at the South Pole and are the widest
apart at the equator -- these lines of longitude are called
"meridians."
Figure 1 -- meridians of longitude
2.
Latitude represents north-south location, and it is shown on a map or
globe by a series of east-west running lines that parallel the equator,
which marks the midpoint between the two poles all around the earth's
circumference -- these lines of latitude are called "parallels." Figure 2
-- parallels of latitude
Not a good place to pass from May to about November each year.
The first European to sight the Cape, Bartholomew Diaz, 1486, named it Cape Tormentosa or stormy Cape, but on his return to Europe, his master John II of Portugal, more farseeing, renamed it Cape of Good Hope. It was renown for its frequently eerie weather and ideally situated as a port of call and refreshment for the long voyage to the East Indies. The Cape was used as a letter box by passing VOC-ships. The stones under which letters were left are still to be seen in South African Museums.
In 1652 the VOC, by Jan van Riebeeck, made a permanent settlement and started to build a fort. The British occupied the Cape in 1795 and in 1803 handed it back to the Dutch under the Treaty of Amiens. In 1806 the British occupied the Cape once again and kept it until 1910.
The settlement on Cape of Good Hope was a victualling station for VOC-ships on their way between Europe and Asia. In order to improve this function the VOC admitted free citizens who were allowed to settle as farmers and in this way enlarge the production of victuals.
In August 1657, Jan van Riebeeck and Capt. Claas Franssen Bordingh had made an extensive report on depth findings in the bay. They wrote that there were all sorts of ships, both large and small which sailed into the bay successfully both day and night openly and unhesitatingly.
In 1666 works started on the Castle and short distance from the Fort. In 1679 Stellenbosch was founded and the Castle completed. In 1688 the Huguenots, religieus refugees (Protestant) arrived. The British occupied the Cape in 1795.
Click here to see some antique maps and prints of Southern Africa and the Cape, or items relating to the V.O.C.
In 1652 the first VOC employees arrived at the Cape on the ship Drommedaris, Reijer ,Goede Hoope and were shorly folowed by a second batch of VOC employees on the Walvis and Oliphant. All were male and some were accompanied by slaves. Their leader was Jan Antoniszoon van Riebeeck. His instructions were clear from the Council of Privy to build a fort for protection that remains a tourist attraction in Cape Town to this day and use the men sent to the Cape to establish a vegetable garden and secure pasturage for the cattle and to establish a hospital. The settlement like all VOC settlements was Governed by a Governer at the head of a 17 member Council of Policy. He established the VOC vegetable garden at what is today called the Garden at the top of Adderley Street and adjacent to what is to date St Georges Cathedral. The first hospital was established in the 5 corner stone fort he built.
In 1657 the first 9 settlers previously employed by the VOC Company were allocated land grants.
The Council of Policy of the Cape felt that private land grants would be more productive than a centralized vegetable garden. In 1677 they started formally registereing these land grants, along with slaves and debentures. This is an early Slave Grant issued in favour of A. Hinloopun. This is one of the very first Slave Grants formally registered and started a century of conflict with the VOC Company who claimed ownership to all of the cape and wanted the men sent to the Cape to work in the Gardens and attend to their cattle and establish a refreshment station at the Cape for their ships bound for India, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The early VOC settlers took dark skinned Hottentots and Griqua and other indigenous women as the common law wifes and their decendants gave rise to what are called the "Cape Coloured Race" Cape Town Slaves in the 1700s
Most free burghers (citizens) had slaves. A distinction was made between VOC slaves and 'private slaves'. Many private slaves worked on the farms, but lodging houses and most households also had slaves. They performed domestic work - gathering firewood and water.
Visitors commented upon the sight of many slaves gathering along the river banks, drawing water and washing clothes. Some slaves performed at parties as musicians. Some were put in charge of selling their owners' products, others were put to work as artisans or fishermen. It is clear that some slaves occupied trusted positions, although all had to carry a pass signed by their owners.
VOC slaves also held a range of occupations. Most, especially the Africans, were put to hard manual labour, but others, mostly Asians, performed domestic work, served in the hospital, worked as artisans and some held clerical positions in Company offices.
Within the windowless slave lodge - where many hundreds of Company slaves lived - skilled slaves received privileges and had authority, were manual slaves ended up cramped in the worst conditions in the building. The mortality rate among manual slaves was very high.
Cape Town Slaves and Islam
A movement of lasting consequence was the practise of Islam among many slaves. Although slaves and convicts came from various cultures and religions, there is no evidence that Hinduism and other faiths were practiced at the Cape. Islam, on the other hand, became a strong force, although it was not allowed to be practiced publicly. The tradition of Islam at the Cape - which can be seen in areas like the Bo-Kaap to this day - is credited to the influence of Muslim political prisoners sent to the Cape in the seventeenth century. The best known is Sheik Yusuf of Makassar, a nobleman banished by the VOC in 1694 after they captured Makassar . He was a noted Sufi scholar and arrived with a considerable retinue, including 12 Imams. He encouraged an Islamic revival among the slaves.
How often do freak waves occur?
No one knows for certain how often freak waves occur. Traditional theories of the ocean say the probability is once in every 10,000 years, but the latest data suggest that they take place more frequently. The satellite data from the German Aerospace Centre found over 10 waves in three weeks, but this is preliminary data not a statistically significant sample.
When do freak waves occur and why?
Freak waves occur in bad weather conditions when the average wave height is high and several big waves come together to create a monster. Technically this could happen when the wave size is small, but as the result is small no one notices. Waves can come together for four main reasons:
1. when wind pushes against a strong current (eg in South Africa)
2. when a shallow sea bottom focuses waves to one spot (eg in Norway)
3. by chance (hence the 1 in 10,000 year statistic)
4. when waves become unstable and start to self-focus
Scientists think the freak waves observed in the deep ocean are due to unstable waves self-focussing in bad weather conditions. It appears that there is a separate population of unstable waves in the ocean that can grow into freaks.
Are freak waves more likely in certain areas or situations?
Freak waves can occur in any ocean around the world, but there are certain areas where freak waves are more likely:
• South Africa - freak waves occur off the east coast of South Africa when there is a strong wind blowing in the opposite direction to the strong Agulhas Current. (The South African Weather Service now gives freak wave warnings.)
• Norway - the coast of Norway is another hotspot because the sea bottom can focus waves together to form monsters - in bad weather the shipping route is altered to avoid these areas.
• Pacific - certain areas of the Pacific are also notorious for freak waves, when typhoons whip waves up to huge heights.
Can scientists predict freak waves?
At the moment the only place where freak waves can be predicted is South Africa. There is no way of knowing when or where a freak wave will hit anywhere else. Scientists at the UK Meteorological Office are working on the problem and think they might have a solution. If Al Osborne's non-linear Schrodinger theory is right, then freak waves should occur whenever there is a peak in the energy spectrum (ie when a lot of energy is crammed into waves of a specific wavelength). So the Met Office has been looking back at recorded cases of freak waves, like the 1995 Draupner wave, to see if the spectrum is peaked. So far the theory holds up and they hope to come up with a practical way to warn ships about freak waves in the next couple of years.
Are freak waves the same as tsunamis or tidal waves?
No. Tsunamis and tidal waves are extremely rare events caused when either an earthquake or landslide displaces a large volume of water creating a single large wave. Freak waves are occurring far more regularly and seem to be a fundamental property of the sea.
How many ships have been sunk by freak waves?
No one knows how many ships have been hit or sunk by freak waves. A ship is lost at sea every week, but there is often surprisingly little detail as to why or what happened. Usually poor maintenance or human error is blamed, but it is likely that at least some of these losses may be related to freak waves.
Do ships need to be redesigned?
The risk from freak waves in uncertain. Ships are built assuming that in their 20 year lifespan there is no risk from freak waves. The new evidence suggests that the risk is higher than originally thought, but the data are far from conclusive. Until the risk is fully assessed, international maritime organisations and classification societies can't know what (if any) changes need to be made to ship specifications.
Should I be worried about going to sea?
If you weren't worried before, you shouldn't be worried now - according to Department of Transport statistics it's over ten times safer to travel by sea than it is to cross the road.
A group of three rogue waves, often called "three sisters", was reported in the vicinity of the Fitzgerald at the time she sank. The "three sisters" phenomenon is said to occur on Lake Superior as a result of a sequence of three rogue waves forming that are one-third larger than normal waves. When the first wave hits a ship's deck, before its water drains away the second wave strikes. The third incoming wave adds to the two accumulated backwashes suddenly overloading the deck with tons of water.
Captain Cooper of the Anderson reported that his ship was "hit by two 30 to 35 foot seas about 6:30 p.m., one burying the aft cabins and damaging a lifeboat by pushing it right down onto the saddle. The second wave of this size, perhaps 35 foot, came over the bridge deck." Cooper went on to say that these two waves, possibly followed by a third, continued in the direction of the Fitzgerald and would have struck about the time she sank. This theory postulates that the "three sisters" compounded the twin problems of the Fitzgerald's known list and her slower speed in heavy seas that already allowed water to remain on her deck for longer than usual.
The Edmund Fitzgerald episode of the 2010 television series Dive Detectives features the wave-generating tank of the Canadian National Research Council's Institute for Naval Technology and the tank's simulation of the effect of a 56 ft rogue wave upon a scale model of the Fitzgerald. The simulation indicated such a rogue wave could almost completely submerge the bow or stern of the ship with water, at least temporarily.
![[ globe showing meridians ]](http://homepages.ius.edu/PGALVIN/lat_long/Geographic%20Grid_files/meridian.jpg)
![[ globe showing parallels ]](http://homepages.ius.edu/PGALVIN/lat_long/Geographic%20Grid_files/parallel.jpg)
The Church’s ministry to seafarers and their families, through its Apostleship of the Sea and its chaplains and volonteers in ports around the globe, offers “a beacon of light” for those who have sailed for weeks without spiritual care or contact with the outside world. That’s the message of encouragement that the President of the Pontifical Council for Migrants, Cardinal Antonio Maria Vegliò imparted to participants at the Apostleship of the Sea Congress that opened in the Vatican’s Synod hall Monday.
A movement of lasting consequence was the practise of Islam among many slaves. Although slaves and convicts came from various cultures and religions, there is no evidence that Hinduism and other faiths were practiced at the Cape. Islam, on the other hand, became a strong force, although it was not allowed to be practiced publicly. The tradition of Islam at the Cape - which can be seen in areas like the Bo-Kaap to this day - is credited to the influence of Muslim political prisoners sent to the Cape in the seventeenth century. The best known is Sheik Yusuf of Makassar, a nobleman banished by the VOC in 1694 after they captured Makassar . He was a noted Sufi scholar and arrived with a considerable retinue, including 12 Imams. He encouraged an Islamic revival among the slaves. 
