NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Dava Sobel
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2006 Apr 30, 18:44 +0100
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2006 Apr 30, 18:44 +0100
About the story, in Sobel's "Longitude", of the "hanged seaman", Frank Reed wrote- | These legends have been around for a | very long time, perhaps from the early 19th century. Sobel certainly didn't | invent any of it. No, but she quoted that fable as unquestioned fact. That's shoddy, journalistic writing. Anything to spice up a good story, at the expense of the known truth. He added- |As William F. | Buckley put it: "an exquisitely done narrative of the chronometer". I wonder how much, if anything, William F Buckley knew about the matter. George. ================= contact George Huxtable at george@huxtable.u-net.com or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
