NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
In the Heart of the Sea
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2017 Jan 2, 10:27 -0500
How realistic would it be for a Nantucket whaler to carry a chronometer in 1820?
Don Seltzer
From: Don Seltzer
Date: 2017 Jan 2, 10:27 -0500
I finally got around this weekend to viewing In the Heart of the Sea which originally came out in 2015. I had passed on it at the time, in part because of the generally negative reviews. I had previously read Nathaniel Philbrick's book about the sinking to the whaleship Essex when it was first published in 2000 and I am sometimes put off by movies which wander too far from the book upon which they are based.
Nautically, the movie seems fairly accurate to the time and captures the atmosphere in the same way as Peter Weir's Master & Commander did. Navigationally, there are quick shots of Capt Pollard's shiny brass sextant and first mate Owen Chase's plainer octant. There are also two brief looks at what appears to be a gimballed chronometer with out any explanation or context as to its use. To most of the audience it probably seemed to be just a fancy expensive personal possession that gets broken when the ship is rammed.
