NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2026 Jul 4, 16:34 -0700
Do you know Walden written by Henry David Thoreau? Sure, you do! At least most Americans know it, or know of it. I chanced upon a reference to, believe it or not, logarithms in navigation in "Walden" a few days ago. I'm sure I read "Walden" in school, but I didn't remember that! Thoreau was a professional surveyor for part of his life, and he was also a fan of the great voyages of "Discovery", which helps explain the reference to the lost French explorer Lapérouse in the section in the image attached below.
The idea of "logarithm tables to be corrected" rang a bell for me... I can almost picture Joshua Slocum reading "Walden" on that tedious 43-day run from Isla Juan Fernandez to the Marquesas and then, a few days later, sub-consciously explaining away his confusion working out his longitude by imagining that he had to "correct his logarithm tables"... Slocum wrote of his own logarithms:
"The tables being corrected, I sailed on with self-reliance unshaken."
Corrected logarithm tables? Self-reliance?? Sounds like the ghost of Thoreau was right by his side... :)
Frank Reed
And on this date, July 4, I point you all to one other work by Thoreau. It's an essay: Civil Disobedience.
