NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: 300th anniversary
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 23, 22:12 -0400
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 23, 22:12 -0400
Nicolas, you wrote: "Well, one significant aspect is that thanks to those shipwrecks instruments only known from literature every now and then literally emerge from the seabed. Good examples of this are the wreck of the Kronan (cross-staff with spoon shaped vanes) and the Kennemerland (part of a hoekboog, or double triangle as it is called in English). Instruments from shipwrecks also show early developments in them as normally those instruments would soon be discarded. The number of surviving instruments from early periods are still increasing. If you check Stimson's work on the Mariner's Astrolabe you will see that thanks to marine archaeology the number of surviving astrolabes doubled over time." Fascinating. Thanks. One item that surprised me about the wreck site of Shovell's flagship, the Association, was that several watch faces were recovered. There's a photo of one of these in "Admiral Shovell's Treasure and the Shipwrecks in the Isles of Scilly" by McBride and Larn. This is a thoroughly researched book and well-documented, given that the authors are not professional historians. I was aware that hand-held watches were common enough by the mid-18th century, but I was surprised to learn that they were already in use in 1707 (admittedly aboard a very well-equipped vessel). -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---