NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: No Lunars Era
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Dec 6, 19:56 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Dec 6, 19:56 EST
Henry H wrote earlier:
"It would be of interest to consider whether all navigation
calculations
actually done aboard any particular vessel, aside from a notation of
position, was actually spread out on the pages of the log book, as
opposed to being calculated on scraps of paper or in a separate workbook
which remained the possession of the individual."
actually done aboard any particular vessel, aside from a notation of
position, was actually spread out on the pages of the log book, as
opposed to being calculated on scraps of paper or in a separate workbook
which remained the possession of the individual."
And George H replied:
"I think Henry has a worthwhile point here. Right from the earliest days of
lunars, in the 1760s, printed pro-formas existed to systematise the
calculations involved in a lunar."
"I think Henry has a worthwhile point here. Right from the earliest days of
lunars, in the 1760s, printed pro-formas existed to systematise the
calculations involved in a lunar."
The existence of forms for lunars, while certainly interesting, doesn't
seem to have any bearing on the original point of the thread. Longitudes in
logbooks were almost always marked to indicate how they were determined. See my
message to Henry Halboth for more details.
And added:
"I think we need to recognise that otherwise well-found vessels
were
continuing to make ocean passages, well into the mid-1800s, without lunars
or chronometers, still adhering to the old methods of latitude-sailing to
find their way around the globe."
continuing to make ocean passages, well into the mid-1800s, without lunars
or chronometers, still adhering to the old methods of latitude-sailing to
find their way around the globe."
Yes indeed. That's why I mentioned a logbook with nearly exclusive DR
longitude from 1858 in the opening message of this thread. The navigator on that
vessel, the bark Mary & Louisa, carried a chronometer but only rarely used
it. I guess he didn't worry much about longitude in mid-ocean.
Frank R
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois
[ ] Mystic, Connecticut
[X] Chicago, Illinois