NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Dava Sobel
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2006 Apr 27, 12:12 -0400
From: Alexandre Eremenko
Date: 2006 Apr 27, 12:12 -0400
Yesterday, I checked in my library the second (illustrated) edition of the book Longitude by Dava Sobel, because it has a very nice photo of one of the Ramsden's sextants used in Cook's expedition (I am studying the performance of this sextant from the expedition log:-) Out of curiosity, I read some places of the book (I never cared to read it before, because I know the level of her writing "about science" from another book (On Galileo's daughter). But now I was surprised in seeing how low this level can actually be:-( Let me cite the explanation, how exactly one determines the longitude with a chronometer: "the ship's capitan learned his longitude in the comfort of his cabin, by comparing his pocket watch to a constant clock that told him the correct time at home port". No other explanation is given in a book which is called "Longitude" and is written for "broad audience"! I could not believe my eyes... and this is was a bestseller... are we really living in "Dark age"? But I have another question, related to this book. In the very beginning she tells the story of a major disaster with British Navy. They were entering English Channel in bad weather, and according to dead reckoning they were "safely west of Isle d'Ouessant (a.k.a. Ushent)" "but as sailors continued North, they discovered to their horror that they misgauged their position near the Scilly Isles..." Can someone explain (or give a reference) what really happened? If I am "safely West" from Ushent, then Scilly islands are almost exactly North of me. WHY were they heading North?? What was their intended destination? (Last summer we approached Scilly islands from NE and landed at 2 a.m. at night:-) This was a thrilling experience, even with GPS:-) Local residents always made their living from wrecked ships. According to Sobel, they killed the admiral who grounded his fleet in the accident described above. Just to steel his emerald ring. (2000 men and 4 warships were lost). Nowadays they make a living by selling photos of the wrecks:-) Alex.