NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2010 May 31, 01:06 -0700
On May 11, 1788, William Bligh aboard the Bounty in the South Atlantic writes in his logbook:
"Got a sight of the Sun exactly at Noon by the TK which I believe to be within a mile of the truth" (in case it isn't clear, he's probably saying that he believes that the resulting latitude is within a mile of the truth).
And again on August 5, 1788, In the Indian Ocean, we have:
"Lat Obs is from an Alt exactly at Noon by T Keeper"
"TK" and "T Keeper" are just the chronometer, of course, which was known as a "Time Keeper" until c.1800. But what's his navigational theory here?? It strikes me as a bit unlikely. He's using the chronometer to determine the instant of noon (maybe in cloudy weather with only brief glimpes of the Sun). Of course he can calculate the time of local noon if he has the GMT from the chronometer and a very good idea of his longitude from some other source --and no he didn't have any other source on these dates except DR. Was he just confused? Theories and speculation welcome. :)
-FER
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