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George,

Thank you for your very clear explanation of the Scilly Islands
accident.

> that marvellous book "The Quest for Longitude", ed., William J H Andrewes,
> by Harvard in '96, which I thoroughly recommend..

Yes, this one I read. Many articles are interesting, indeed.

> four ships piled up on the Scillies in the dark with the loss of 200

Two hudered or two thousand (as Sobel writes)?

> was a failure to know, not his longitude, but his latitude.

This is what I conjectured (when I look at the map
given in "Illustrated Longitude").
As I understand they were going to enter the English channel,
and missed the right place to turn East.

> which led indirectly to the Longitude Act and the Longitude Prize and
> then to the Nautical Almanac and to Harrison's chronometer.

Do you really think that these things would not be invented without the
Longitude Act? Maybe 10 years later, at most:-)

> An unlikely tale, indeed.

You really consoled me:-) This hanging story, as told by Sobel, was too
disturbing... How about the murder of the admiral by a local woman?

> Alex should be aware of the dangers of apoplexy
> as he continues to read through "Longitude".

That's true. I already returned the book, and you calmed me down about
the hanging:-)

Alex.

   

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