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On 14/01/2019 17:01, Robin Stuart wrote:
> I was thumbing through my copy the excellent "Ships, Clocks, and Stars:
> The Quest for Longitude" trying to find where I had read the statement
> that as Astronomer Royal, Maskelyne would not have been eligible to
> receive money from the longitude prize. I didn't find that statement
> (does anyone else on Navlist know where it might be?) but came across
> this painting entitled "Life on the Ocean, representing the usual
> occupations of the young officers in the steerage of a British frigate
> at sea" by Augustus Earle
> http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/12610.html  .
>
> It is mentioned from time to time that navigational calculations were
> often done on scraps of paper that have been lost. The picture suggests
> another reason why intermediate calculations are hard to find. The young
> seaman lying in the centre appears to be using a slate. I don't know how
> widely they were used but it seems like a good solution on a long sea
> voyage.
>
> What is might be in the semi-circular case hanging beside the quadrant
> on the beam to the left?

Back in January several people suggested the case might be a hat box. By
chance I came across this auction picture of a 'bicorne' hat supposedly
dropped by Napoleon at Waterloo. Its case is of the same general shape
as the case hanging from the beam.

 From what I can tell from Wikipedia the bicorne hats were a common part
of the uniform of naval officers around the time of the painting (c.
1836). "The bicorne was widely worn until World War I as part of the
full dress of officers of most of the world's navies."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicorne

This site sells a reproduction of a slightly different, but also
semi-circular case:
https://www.reconstitutionhistorique.com/boite-pour-bicorne-de-l-ecole-polytechnique-c2x22236510


Luc

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