Premodern transportation for fantasists

[fidelioscabinet]

This post continues on from this conversation, and this follow-up post of mine. The inciting spark, of course, was hawkwing_lb's comment: I'm beginning to think that writers of epic fantasy and SF should be required to learn about the anthropology of material culture.This is about transportation. It's a topic where I have a slight advantage when it comes to

Comments

[neddy_s]

Excellent! Carriers could often make 20-40 miles in a day, and also bear in mind that most goods trips (not sure about people trips) in England at least were intermodal (road/track, river, coastal ship--which I don't think we run into often in fantasy, sailing ships are usually for crossing seas).

I think this is the only book out there with specific details of how carriers operated:

http://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Road_Transport_Before_the_Railways.html?id=axg9AAAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y

but of course anyone really interested (:)) can get in touch with me.

[fidelioscabinet]

I urge people to do so: real live civil engineer currently studying historic transportation systems! Will consult! Such a deal!

[neddy_s]

LOL always happy to help out the sff community...!

[la_marquise_de_]

Yes! It drives me nuts that people write without thinking about this stuff properly.

[rikibeth]

Oh, I had so much fun with this when I was writing my novel (England, 1802-1805). I hadn't yet found Cary's Itinerary on Google Books, but I discovered that you could map old coaching routes pretty effectively on Google Maps with a bit of guidance provided by noticing that roads were called "Old XXXX Road" as well as things like "A219". And knowing that they often used old Roman roads as their base, which are instantly recognizable because they're stick-straight. Post-horses had to be changed every 10-15 miles if you wanted to maintain a decent speed (10mph in good weather, and I made sure to mention in one instance of wintry travel that they'd had several days of cold dry weather so the roads were hard rather than muddy), and I discovered that if you did "search nearby pubs" you often found old coaching inns at the intervals that were still operating, albeit without horses. And things can happen along the way: broken wheels, having to wait at a change point because the Mail has precedence and there are other people ahead of you and

[malkingrey]

Do you mind if I link to this from my professional blog?

[fidelioscabinet]

Certainly! Also, neddy_s is a transportation engineer with a specialty in historic transportation, in case you ever need one,

[fledgist]

My father took part in the last mule drives in Jamaica. My paternal grandfather bred horses and mules, the latter for export to Colombia before they were replaced by trucks in the 1930s. As a boy, in the late 20s and early 30s, my father helped drive the mules to harbour for export.

I've ridden in a mule cart on a rough road myself, forty-odd years ago.

The longest walk I've done is fifty miles in 17 hours (9 a.m. till 2 a.m. the next day). Followed by another five miles of uphill walking without any sleep intervening after having had breakfast and "borrowed" some money from a friend which allowed me to take buses an additional twenty-six miles. I then slept for ten hours from sheer exhaustion. I was 22. I don't think I've ever done anything as foolhardy since.

[fidelioscabinet]

My feet and legs ache thinking about that, just in case you doubted it.

Also, the thought of attempting to herd any number of mules in excess of a single one astounds me. I know they did it, but all the same!

[fledgist]

I'm amazed at how they did it myself, especially at the thought of my father at 9 and 10 (in 1929 and 1930) taking part in the exercise. Yet I know he did. Some of his descriptions of herding animals long distances as a boy boggle my mind (his father would pull him out of school, and when the teacher would enquire about it would say that he was lazy and playing truant resulting in his being flogged for it).

[fidelioscabinet]

Also, Clausewitz was right! You can walk fifty miles in a day, you're just not going to be doing anything afterwards for a while!