How Efficiently Does A Ship Sail Around The Globe?

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My previous blog post on sailing a ship around the globe raised an interesting question: how efficient is sailing a ship around the globe? I previously noted that the Suez Canal is not as beneficial as it could be (when sailing to/from Portsmouth) as France and Spain get in the way and sailing along the Mediterranean is inefficient regardless of the Suez Canal.

To this end, I wrote a simple script to compare the actual sailing times with the sailing times calculated by GST:

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.editorconfig
.gitignore
.mypy.ini
.pylint.ini
.shellcheckrc
git-files.txt
globalSailingEfficiency.py
LICENCE.txt
README.md
You may also download “git-files.txt” directly or view “git-files.txt” on GitHub Gist (you may need to manually checkout the “main” branch).

Below are the three maps for the absolute (in)efficiency on a linear scale from 0 hours to 200 hours.

Download:
  1. 256 px × 128 px (0.0 Mpx; 39.2 KiB)
  2. 512 px × 256 px (0.1 Mpx; 121.5 KiB)
  3. 1,024 px × 512 px (0.5 Mpx; 393.2 KiB)
  4. 2,048 px × 1,024 px (2.1 Mpx; 1.3 MiB)
  5. 3,600 px × 1,800 px (6.5 Mpx; 692.3 KiB)
Download:
  1. 256 px × 128 px (0.0 Mpx; 39.4 KiB)
  2. 512 px × 256 px (0.1 Mpx; 121.7 KiB)
  3. 1,024 px × 512 px (0.5 Mpx; 397.0 KiB)
  4. 2,048 px × 1,024 px (2.1 Mpx; 1.3 MiB)
  5. 3,600 px × 1,800 px (6.5 Mpx; 454.3 KiB)
Download:
  1. 256 px × 128 px (0.0 Mpx; 39.1 KiB)
  2. 512 px × 256 px (0.1 Mpx; 120.8 KiB)
  3. 1,024 px × 512 px (0.5 Mpx; 395.2 KiB)
  4. 2,048 px × 1,024 px (2.1 Mpx; 1.3 MiB)
  5. 3,600 px × 1,800 px (6.5 Mpx; 436.0 KiB)

These show that sailing up to Basra (in Iraq) and Bangkok (in Thailand) add the most extra hours to your total sailing time. Now, if I plot the same data as a relative (in)efficiency on a linear scale from 0% to 4% then you will see that it is the Northern Mediterranean, with the least efficient being Venice (in Italy).

Download:
  1. 256 px × 128 px (0.0 Mpx; 36.1 KiB)
  2. 512 px × 256 px (0.1 Mpx; 105.7 KiB)
  3. 1,024 px × 512 px (0.5 Mpx; 323.5 KiB)
  4. 2,048 px × 1,024 px (2.1 Mpx; 952.9 KiB)
  5. 3,600 px × 1,800 px (6.5 Mpx; 196.4 KiB)
Download:
  1. 256 px × 128 px (0.0 Mpx; 35.8 KiB)
  2. 512 px × 256 px (0.1 Mpx; 104.7 KiB)
  3. 1,024 px × 512 px (0.5 Mpx; 320.5 KiB)
  4. 2,048 px × 1,024 px (2.1 Mpx; 965.1 KiB)
  5. 3,600 px × 1,800 px (6.5 Mpx; 194.2 KiB)
Download:
  1. 256 px × 128 px (0.0 Mpx; 35.4 KiB)
  2. 512 px × 256 px (0.1 Mpx; 104.1 KiB)
  3. 1,024 px × 512 px (0.5 Mpx; 317.1 KiB)
  4. 2,048 px × 1,024 px (2.1 Mpx; 950.9 KiB)
  5. 3,600 px × 1,800 px (6.5 Mpx; 186.2 KiB)