NavList:

Frank, you wrote:

“Consider this... He didn't have to calculate a single one! He could have simply brought the observations home, if he had skill enough to make the observations properly (which I don't think he did before the Endeavour voyage, but just speaking hypothetically, there was no requirement to analyze them on-site)”

Yes indeed, a maner to colect only the observation’s data and calculating (or recalculating in case they were done) them later was a practise during the lunars era. Somehow this is  the same thing the historic lunar’s entusiasts are still practicing when they take some historic data and recalculate them.   And I have always been fascinated by this ability! If you have two recorded altitudes and the distance, you can get the longitude (I am slightly simplifying). But it’s really fascinating!   

Frank, you toched an interesting aspect of historic lunars. The ability to check the longitudes by recalculating the lunar observation data by using not almanac data, but the real observed values at the date of initial observation (or close to it), thus avoiding the almanc errors. This method was used, for example, to make maps of Australia more accurate after the famous M.Flinder’s  expedition in years 1801-1803. Flinders made his own calculations, but after his return his observations were recalculated and corrected.

But all this, of course, has nothing comon with Cook’s Newfaundland surveys. Anyway I am always very glad to read anything about history of navigation in NavList discussions.

Modris Fersters