NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Yves Robin-Jouan
Date: 2014 Nov 23, 07:14 -0800
The similarity between the navigations of French "Hermione" and USS "Constitution" across the Atlantic ocean is very interesting indeed. I was thinking that the limit for the use of this ancestral method was about 1795... Nevertheless, I know that it was still incorporated in the "Traite de Navigation" approved by "Institut de France" and published by Du bourguet on 1808.
Notice that on 1801, Captain de Latouche (same as for "Hermione") used both methods while crossing to Saint-Domingue, in order to catch Toussaint Louverture: Lunar Distances (following Borda pattern) gave 13 NM error and marine chronometers gave 36 NM error after "Foudroyant" has reached her destination.
(Then, Latouche changed his name into Amiral Latouche-Treville and was the initiator of the Napoleon project of invading England ! He fighted against Amiral Nelson twice, but he died of yellow fever on board "Bucentaure" just before Trafalgar)
