The primary sources for analyzing Sultana's sailing operation and performance were the Bruce and Inglis logbooks – primarily Bruce’s, as he tended to provide more detail about sail sets and changes, given his role on board. I prepared and used transcriptions of Bruce's logs of seven voyages: the transatlantic crossing from England to America from August to October 1768; a short coastal passage from Boston to Newport in December 1768; Virginia to Halifax in August 1770; Halifax to Virginia in October 1770; Virginia to Newport, October–November 1770; Boston to Philadelphia in October 1771; and the transatlantic crossing from Boston to England, October–December 1772.

Important supplementary sources were the interviews conducted with experienced period replica schooner operators Drew McMullen, Aaron Thal, and Jan Miles, and the ensuing discussions of issues raised with Jan Miles and Nick Burningham.1 The overarching goal was to understand as much as possible about how the vessel was sailed: what sails were set in what conditions and why, and Sultana's operational parameters in terms of wind direction, sea state, and speed. Such an effort relies on the principles established for the specialty of experimental archaeology, adapted to the exigencies of replica ship operation in the real world, as opposed to anything approaching laboratory conditions.

The first task was to condense Bruce's log to information pertaining directly to sailing performance: wind direction, wind strength, course made good over the day's run, the day's run in nautical miles, the times of sail changes, and the details of those sail changes. For ease of use, I then converted the original point-system directions and bearings into degrees and minutes. I also eliminatedall days from this modified log for which no sailing performance data was provided.

For wind strength, I used Bruce's and Inglis's terminology. As it is impossible to correlate, exactly, their terminology to the modern Beaufort Scale, I would introduce less uncertainty and/or error into the interpretations by sticking to their terms. As is typical of eighteenth-century verbiage, Bruce's and Inglis's ‘weather categories’ are not strictly consistent. For example, I am confident that ‘light breezes and calms’ is the same as ‘light breezes mixed with calms.’