re: MERCATOR: Chosen Olde World Map-Maker of the 16th Century (Includes 'The Map')

I spent an evening at a geological society meeting just listening to guys from the coast talking about the Bays and what they didn't know.

Years later, people still don't know what happened to the first colony in North Carolina. To me it didn't make sense to settle so far from the ocean. Well, duh, when they settled there, there was a Pass in the outer banks close to opposite the colony, but that either wasn't remembered or not thought to be important enough to mention. The outer barrier islands tend to be breached; it's only the Corps of Engineers that keep the breaches filled back.

I find that the Roman coastal cities, easily accessible for sea transport are inland. From Rome to Chester England (the latter the Roman city Diva), their rivers filled in the post glacial scoured river channels. The more farming, the more land disturbance, the more sediments to fill and choke those channels.

The west coast of the US has precious few harbors and lots of rocky shore lines, the better to stove in your wooden ship and thus better avoided. (The Columbia mouth being hidden in fog much of the year with an area off shore where sediment drops and accumulates as the mighty Columbia is slowed rapidly.