NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Modern celestial navigation: when and why?
From: Francis Upchurch
Date: 2015 Mar 5, 22:58 -0800
From: Francis Upchurch
Date: 2015 Mar 5, 22:58 -0800
Bob,
Yes, the 1707 wreck of HMS Association (Admiral Sir Cloudsley Shovell! What a grand old salty name!) I dived on that in the 1980s. there are hundreds of other wrecks aroung there. Not sure whether a chronometer would have saved them in 1707, since apparently it was cloudy and foggy, also pre-Hadley's octant,(so using Davis backstaff?) .So probably a combination of not knowing where they were and not being able to use the number one eyeball to avoid the rocks?
Still ,it did, as you say, catalyse the longitude prize, Harrison etc and the rest is history. (Also started my interest and passion for celnav.) Despite that,
every year, plenty of modern yachts with GPS go aground,so eyeballing is still the best last resort.
Francis
