NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Crossbones
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2014 May 31, 13:57 -0400
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2014 May 31, 13:57 -0400
On Sat, May 31, 2014 at 1:36 PM, Frank Reed <NoReply_FrankReed@fer3.com> wrote:
Note that since Edward Teach, the original "Blackbeard", died in 1718, the idea that there was already a "longitude chronometer" is anachronistic, though there's always the option that some charlatan was peddling a mysterious contraption in the Caribbean and might have claimed that it was a "longitude chronometer" (when nitpicking fiction, it's important to leave the door open to reasonable fictional solutions). And also, except for one satirical publication, the "stuffy" word chronometer did not become a common nautical term for a "marine time-keeper" until the beginning of the 19th century, more than eighty years after Blackbeard. But that's just history trivia --no problem for a fictional pirate story! :)
I tried to make sense of what time period the story was set in, based upon 'historical' clues. I suspect that 1720's was the target, but both of the ships were badly anachronistic by about a century. The larger one was portrayed by 'El Galeon', a tourist attraction in St Augustine, FL, and properly represents the late 1500's or early 1600's. That smart looking topsail schooner with raked masts suggests a Baltimore clipper of the early 1800's or later.
Don Seltzer
