NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Battenberg Course Indicator
From: Dave Weilacher
Date: 2006 Mar 7, 16:27 -0500
From: Dave Weilacher
Date: 2006 Mar 7, 16:27 -0500
Hi George; I would be pleased to have a copy. Thanks. Dave W -----Original Message----- >From: George Huxtable>Sent: Mar 7, 2006 3:34 PM >To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM >Subject: Re: Battenberg Course Indicator > >Paul Hirose wrote- > > >|> I came across this by chance while prowling the Internet. "The >| > Battenberg Course Indicator was invented in 1892 by Captain H. S. H. >| > Prince Louis of Battenberg, G.C.B., afterwards Admiral-of-the-Fleet The >| >| At that same site there's a short bio on the inventor, Battenberg. He >| was Austrian by birth, which didn't prevent him from having a highly >| distinguished career in the Royal Navy. That is, until the outbreak of >| war in 1914. Later he took the surname Mountbatten. >| >| http://www.gwpda.org/bio/b/batnburg.html >| >| Getting back to the device itself, I found that The National Maritime >| Museum in London has one: >| >http://www.portcities.org.uk/london/server/show/conMediaFile.6192/Battenbergs-course-indicator-Mark-III.html >| >| So does the Smithsonian: >| http://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/navigation/object.cfm?recordnumber=1087634 >| >| According to that page, list member Peter Ifland did a writeup on the >| Course Indicator in Navigation News back in 2000. >| >| Here's one for sale, price 475 Euros. Either this one is a different >| variant, or there's a lot of stuff missing. >| http://www.regiozeist.nl/eng_scheeps_instrumenten.htm >| >===================== > >I have a copy of the RIN's Navigation News for November/December 2000, on page 14 of which is an >article by Gloria C Clifton and Peter Ifland entitled "A slice of history: The Battenberg course >indicator". Gloria is curator of navigational instruments at Greenwich maritime museum, and now is >the museum's director, I understand. Peter is an occasional Nav-L contributor, and author of "Taking >the stars" (about sextants, etc) , and a co-author of "Line of position navigation", recently >discussed here in relation to Sumner lines. > >The instrument is nicely explained, as you would expect from those authors, with a clear diagram. It >occupies two A4 pages, which I am happy to scan if requested and send to individual email addresses. >Just ask. Don't expect a response within10 days or so, however. > >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. Dave Weilacher .IBM AS400 RPG Senior Programmer Analyst/Project Leader .USCG Master lic. 100 ton .ASA Sailing Instructor Evaluator