I got the impression from my readings that you'd get a 1 or 2 a week...maybe 3 on the rare occassion...this i stotally subjective on my part though. When you did get them, they werent as precise as we get them. They'd mention shipping or a convoy in an area, not a precise coordinate and a general heading and speed and any other speculative info if applicable. But you couldnt just lay down a track from the map and get a nice easy straight line track to go down. Lots of the traffic maybe following coastline contours, or have a bit of a circle arc to them, etc.
Because the ships had real origins and destinations, one could speculate and use intuition and intelligent guesses to aid in finding them. It seems the most important factor to finding targets wasnt open ocean contacts, but lurking outside of high traffic ports.
It was a waste of time hoping for a lucky open ocean contact, you waited right outside of where a lot of ships were coming and going from. You'd sink these guys close enough for the population on the coast to just make out the smoke on the horizon, a half days travel in or out of port. You sent merchants down before they had their bags unpacked.
|