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I too enjoy nautical history: the ships, the strategy and tactics of
exploration, and of course, the development of navigation and its
mathematics and instruments.  I think this forum is as good as any
for these topics, although history is not officially in the charter
of the list.

There are not many good web sites devoted to this.  One of the best
that I have found is in your backyard: Greenwich!

http://www.port.nmm.ac.uk/ROADS/subject-listing/ancient.html

Dan

-----Original Message-----
From  Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of George Huxtable
Sent: Friday, November 16, 2001 12:19 PM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: On nautical history.


On Nautical History

I've enjoyed my membership of this list (and its predecessor) for some
years now, and learned much from it, and had some really satisfactory
arguments (even if I may not have won many of them). I've no intention of
jumping-ship from Navigation-L, not at all.

My own interest is in the history of the subject, the way navigation and
its techniques developed, the increasing sophistication of the
instrumentation involved. I suspect that only a minority of Navigation-L
subscribers share that historical interest to any great extent.

I have tried other mailing lists, as follows-

"Hastro-L", for the history of astronomy. Sometimes fascinating stuff but
concentrates to a large extent on ancient belief-systems and their
connection with astrology and the sky.

"Sextants" -for sextants. This can be interesting but seems rather
preoccupied with sextants-as-objects: provenance, authenticity, value. Not
so much with function.

"Rete" - which deals with the history of scientific instruments. This too
can be interesting but has a much wider range than I wish to follow.

So here is my question. Can any members of this list identify, and
recommend, any other mailing-list or website which concentrates on the
history of seafaring and/or the historical development of navigational
techniques?

George.

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george@huxtable.u-net.com
George Huxtable, 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
Tel. 01865 820222 or (int.) +44 1865 820222.
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