NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Columbus
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2004 Oct 14, 12:58 -0500
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2004 Oct 14, 12:58 -0500
I have to correct an error in my previous statement that Columbus did better in Cel Nav than the B-52 navigator who missed by 300 miles. I just checked with Adm. Morison (the main expert on Columbus navigation). This is not so. In his first voyage, Columbus was taking Polaris (from Land with a primitive quadrant (NOT to be confused with Hadley quadrant/octant) and astrolabe, and obtained latitude of 42 d while his actual latitude was approx. 21 d. On Morison's opinion Columbus confused Polaris with another star. Another time, also in his first voyage, he took Polaris altitude from his ship and this time the error was only 3 degrees. That Sun can be also used to find latitude Columbus did not know. On the other hand, Morison and others who studied the question conclude that Columbus was a "genius of dead reckoning". Morison even says that such masters of DR do not exist in our time (he was writing in 1940-s). As an example, in his second voyage, Columbus had to reach the point (Fort Navidad) where he left some people in his first voyage. He missed by only 10 leagues (apparently less than 1 degree) on his 1000 leagues crossing. The only precise instrument he had in his possession was a compass. The speed of the ship was determined "visually", by looking at the water turbulence behind the stern:-) Alex