NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: London symposium
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2006 Nov 24, 23:42 -0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2006 Nov 24, 23:42 -0000
Peter Fogg quoted from Wolfgang K�berer - "In the afternoon Jeremy Spencer from the National Museum of Australia presented his findings on Cook's mapping methods on the coasts of New Zealand in 1769. From what I understood � and I admit that the Australian accent sometimes baffled me � he thinks that Cook was essentially making a running survey from aboard ship." and adds- "It is well known that Cook (and his crew) mapped the coasts of eastern New Holland (Australia) and New Zealand as he meandered along them, and being a sailor he also recorded water depths and other information (weather, winds, fires burning along the coast, etc). His voyages were so valuable because he brought back such detailed information about little known lands. I am a little puzzled myself about what new point Jeremy Spencer could have been making." Well, it isn't so simple to make a map of an unknown coastline as you "meander" along it. Land surveyors can measure a baseline and take bearings from its ends and triangulate from that. From sea, any baseline is somewhat fluid. For a coast that tends North-South, it can be done by creating a baseline between two sea-positions with spacing determined by precise celestial latitude measurement. Where it tends East-West, it's much harder, when the surveyor lacks a chronometer, as Cook did on that first circumnavigation, and had only lunars, and dead reckoning, to rely on for longitude differences. Jeremy has studied Cook's original chart-sheets as they were made on the spot, with deletions and pasted-in insertions, and lots of bearing-lines and construction-lines still remaining. One conclusion he has drawn is that Cook used a plane-table, out on deck, to plot his bearings directly. I must say that to me that seemed a bit unlikely. Plane-table surveying requires that the table be planted firmly on the ground, and levelled. On a ship, it will be subject to inevitable rolling and yawing. It seems to me much more likely that bearings will have been taken by an azimuth-compass out on deck, then relayed to the great cabin where the chart was being assembled. But I am no expert on Cook, or on surveying. Peter continued- "As to being 'baffled' by an Australian accent, now that is a wondrously strange notion. Surely it is everyone else who has an accent; not us? When Australian films are shown on American TV the voices are dubbbed, but the English in this are made of sterner stuff: Australian Soapies (Soap Operas; emotionally charged ongoing espisodic tales of trivia) are quite popular on British TV and viewers just have to cope. It gets easier with practice, apparently." Jeremy is actually a Kiwi (New Zealander) by origin, though now in Australia, and the accent is subtly different from Australian. I must say that I didn't share the difficulties that Wolfgang reports; perhaps Kiwi speech presents special problems to a German speaker. However, I have a sister who has become a Kiwi, so that may have helped. George. contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---