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Re: Captains Logbook from 1687 describes longitude
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2016 Nov 29, 09:19 -0500

In the 17th century, France used the Canary Islands as the reference for the Prime Meridian. The original reasoning seems to be that it was considered the western edge of Europe at that time.

Don Seltzer

On Mon, Nov 28, 2016 at 10:48 PM, George Ayers <NoReply_GeorgeAyers@fer3.com> wrote:

I have a copy of the logbook from a French man-of-war my ancestor was aboard in 1687. The captain of the ship Arc-en-Ciel recorded both latitude and longitude in the journal. Latitude gave a fairly good reckoning in those days, but the decription of longitude confuses me.
1. How was longitude calculated on board a ship in 1687?
2. Here are typical longitude readings leaving from La Rochelle France heading for Canada. . Day 1: 12°45', Day 2: 9°59', Day 3: 8°5',. . . . . Day 8: 2°35', Day 10: 1°9', Day 11: 359°49', Day 12: 358°31' . . . . . . Day 20:341°55' . . . . Day 30: 320° 28' etc.
When I use latitude and leagues travelled (according to the logbook), I can estimate a longitude, but the original longitude numbers in the logbook are confusing.
Can anyone help me out in understanding both how it might have been calculated and what those longitude numbers written in the logbook represent.?
Thanks for your help - George in Toronto Canada

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