Voyage Trace app iconHistorical navigation mystery

Voyage Trace

Rebuild the routes of lost sailing ships from what survived: a water-stained captain's log, the wind, the current and the Sun. One small step at a time, until the route returns to the chart.

  • Free on iPhone
  • 6 lost voyages
  • Works offline
  • No tracking
How it works

From a torn log to a route on the chart

Every case is a lost voyage with a broken record. You work it the way a navigator would, one small task per screen.

01 · Read

Read the surviving log

Every case starts with a captain's log: courses, weather and sightings. Some pages are missing, and that is the point.

02 · Analyze

Analyze the evidence

Wind, current, speed, time and the Sun are laid out as cards. Each is marked ✓ Confirmed, ~ Estimated or ? Unknown.

03 · Reconstruct

Rebuild one point at a time

One small task per screen: set a direction, place a point, account for the current, match an observation.

04 · Discover

Watch the route return

The route grows on the chart as you work. Every result is an estimate with an honest confidence level.

Why you'll keep tracing

Real navigation. Honest answers.

No GPS, no shortcuts: just the methods sailors trusted for centuries, and a record full of gaps.

Six lost voyages

From a supply brig bound for Iceland in 1786 to a whaler pushing toward Spitsbergen and a barque among Labrador icebergs. Each one is a case to crack.

The methods sailors trusted

Dead reckoning, noon sights, chronometer longitude and bearings on a headland: work the route with the real tools of historical navigation.

Evidence you can weigh

Every clue says how far you can trust it, so a decision is never a blind guess.

✓ Confirmed~ Estimated? Unknown

An honest confidence level

Historical routes can never be perfectly certain. Every reconstruction shows how likely it is, with dashed lines where the record is missing.

An archive and a guide

18 illustrated articles on ships, charts and instruments, plus 8 guide topics with small diagrams to try, from bearings to the noon Sun.

Offline and private

No accounts, no ads, no analytics. Everything is built into the app, works without a connection and stays on your iPhone.

The casebook

Six voyages. Six silences in the record.

Fictional, historically inspired expeditions across the northern waters, built on real navigation methods and real coastlines.

Start here

The Northern Passage

1786 · North Atlantic. Recommended for a first case.

OPEN CASE

The Northern Passage

1786 · North Atlantic

5 daysRecommended level: EASY

A supply brig bound from Shetland for Iceland. Seawater spoiled half of her log.

Brig Calliope

The Missing Meridian

1834 · North Sea

2 daysRecommended level: EASY

A survey cutter crossing to Norway. Her chronometer stopped on the first night.

Cutter Linnet

White Horizon

1812 · Arctic Waters

4 daysRecommended level: STANDARD

A whaler pushed north toward Spitsbergen along the edge of the ice. Fog hid every second day.

Barque Hesper

The Pale Crossing

1851 · Labrador Sea

4 daysRecommended level: STANDARD

A barque crossing from Greenland to Labrador among drifting icebergs.

Barque Selkirk

The Silent Strait

1799 · Denmark Strait

3 daysRecommended level: MYSTERY

A sealing sloop entered the strait between Iceland and Greenland and left almost no record.

Sloop Solveig

The Frozen Gate

1821 · Hudson Strait

4 daysRecommended level: MYSTERY

A brig working west through Hudson Strait, where tides and ice decide the course.

Brig Kestrel

EASY

Most positions and readings survived. A gentle first case.

STANDARD

Some courses and currents are missing. Read the clues.

MYSTERY

Most of the route must be worked out from scattered notes.

The archive & the guide

Learn the sea as you go

Short, visual articles and plain-word answers, always one tap away from the case you're working.

Contact

Message in a bottle

A question, an idea for a new voyage, or a mistake you spotted in a log? We read every message.

hsgjds525@gmail.com

Or write to us directly at hsgjds525@gmail.com

Message sent ✓

Thanks for writing. Your message is on its way across the water.

Voyage Trace app icon: a blue explorer's case with a treasure map, compass, sextant and a model ship on the ice

Every route leaves a trace.

Open the first case tonight. The log is waiting, and so is the sea.

Calm, clever & quietly addictive