Farrington, A. J., S. Lubker, U. Radok, and S. Woodruff, 1998: South Atlantic winds and weather during and following the Little Ice Age - A pilot study of English East India Company (EEIC) ship logs. Meteorol. Atmos. Phy., 67, 253-257.
The times taken by ships of the English East India Company (EEIC) to sail from the Cape of Good Hope to St. Helena Island during the 17th, 18th, and early 19th centuries represent proxy measures of the strength and steadiness of the Southeast Trades which are compared with present-day data from the Comprehensive Ocean-Atmosphere Data Set (COADS). Both wind speed and steadiness appear to have reached maxima in the 1760s and increased again, from lower values in the following decade, to the 1820s. These changes need to be further substantiated with the available log entries concerning winds, weather, and rates of progress. A similar fleshing out of fragmentary pre-instrumental pre-standardized records with current climatic characteristics is suggested for the routes fanning out east of the Cape towards Arabia, India, China, Indonesia, and Australia.