Yeah but I don ' t have to . <| sep |> Ed Gein is from Plainfield <| sep |> As for the idea of a windless day . I do no think that is practical . The height of the Clipper ' s sail and the way wind differs by altitude defeats the notion of doldrums for such ships . Again from wikipedia sorry for not finding a better sourceThe route sailed by a sailing ship was always heavily dictated by the wind conditions , which are generally reliable from the west in the forties and fifties . Even here , however , winds are variable , and the precise route and distance sailed would depend on the conditions on a particular voyage . Ships in the deep Southern Ocean could find themselves faced with persistent headwinds , or even becalmed . So no , clipper ships could still be becalmed in the eighteen forties , which means they certainly could be becalmed in the 1760 ' s . Rome might have to wait a few months , but Rome can afford to do that . As for raiding being innefective . I am not sure I understand . Most of the population of the Roman empire was on the coast . A few raids against the food supply where troops are stationed would be devastating . If a landbound spy with a telescope can report on monthly grain shipments , then a 150 American Marines could jump out of a boat and destroy or steal it in the middle of the night forcing the troops to go elsewhere for food . Clearly the Americans will not succeed like this for every Roman Gathering , but for how many can they succeed ? Can they starve the Roman armies , will the Romans be slowed to half their pace or will the Roman armies be unfetterred ? Can ' t Rome do the same , just by sending triremes across the channel ? And since Rome has a much larger base for its infrastructure , it would be equipped to sustain such a war . Also , American ships would have to weigh anchor and launch boats , which would leave them vulnerable if any triremes decide to lie in ambushwhich they will if this type of raiding becomes common enough to effect the war . So although it would be effective , Rome would be able to do it just as well as the Americans since they don ' t have to stop their ships , launch boats , and then stop the ships again to recover the boats , and Rome has a much larger industry to withstand such raids .