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After all the posts about this subject last year I got a copy of this
book.Very interesting reading as you all stated.He had a wonderful way of
looking at sailing and navigation.Well written story also.I especially liked
the following passage from the book when the Spray was inbound to the
Marquesas,and I quote it:
"On the 43rd day at sea,the sky being beautufully clear and the moon being
"in distance"with the sun,I threw up my sextant for sights.I found from the
result of 3 observations,after long wrestling with the lunar tables,that her
longitide by observation agreed within 5 miles of that of dead reckoning.
In a few hrs more I should see land;and so it happened,for then I made the
island of Nukahiva,clear-cut and lofty.the verified long. when abreast was
somewhere between the 2 reckonings;this was extraordinary.All navigators
will you that from one day to anither a ship may lose or gain more than 5
miles in her sailing account,and again,in the matter of lunars,even expert
lunarians are considered as doing clever work when they average within 8
miles of the truth.
I hope I am making it clear that I do not lay claim to cleverness or to
slavish calculations on my reckonings.I have already stated that I kept my
long.,at least,mostly by intuitionn.
Unique was my experiance in nautical astromomy from the deck of the
Spray-some much so that I feel jusified in telling it here.The 1st set of
sights,just spoken of,put her many hundred miles west of my reckoning by
account.I knew this was not correct.In an hrs. time i took another set of
observations with the utmost care;the mean result of these was about the
same as the 1st set.I asked myself why,with my boasted self-dependance,had I
not done at least better than this.I went in search of a discrepancy in the
tables.and found it.In the tables I found that the column of figures from
which I got an important logarithm was in error.The result of these
obsevations naturally tickled my vanity,for I knew that it was something to
stand on a great ship's deck and with 2 assistans take lunar observations
nearing the truth.As one of the poorist American sailors,I was proud of the
little acheivement alone on the sloop,even by chance though it may have
been.
To find local time is a simple matter.The differance between local and
standard time is long. expressed in time-4 minutes,we all know,representing
1 degree.this,briefly,is the principle on which long. is found independant
of chonometers.The work of the lunarian,though seldom practised in these
days of chronometers,is beautifully edifying,and there is nothing in the
realm of navigation that lifts one's heart up more in adoration"
What a well written piece dealing with part of his life and duties while
being on the water.His outlook on sailing and navigating are refreshing to
read.
Thank you all who got me interested in this guy by posting about him,thus
arrousing my curiousity.

   

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