NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Mike Mayer
Date: 2014 Jan 14, 08:57 -0600
In related news it turns out that computer source code shown in movies and TV shows is not always accurate (Really? J). What is interesting is that someone has tried to track down the source (source of the source). He has a blog:
So just like celestial navigation in books/movies/TV shows it is more of a prop than anything intended to be accurate.
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Mike Mayer
From: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com] On Behalf Of Wolfgang Köberer
Sent: Tuesday, January 14, 2014 4:34 AM
To: mwmayer@tds.net
Subject: [NavList] Re: Patrick O'Brian series
Just a short note on Don Seltzer's remark "At one point,he attempts to implement Maskelyne's idea of a pendulum chair for observing Jupiter's moons at sea, with predictable results."
That chair was an invention of Christopher Irwin.Maskelyne only tried it on his 1763 voyage to Barbados with the foreseeable result which he relayed in a letter to his brother: "„My friend Irwin‘s machine proves a mere bauble, not in the least useful for the purpose intended“.
Personally I prefer O'Brian and I take them primarily as historical novels trying to convey the feeling of that time which is shown by the fact that some are situated mostly on land. Apart from that: In contrast to Forester who kills off his female characters - which are quite bloodless anyway - when they are not needed for the plot anymore, O'Brian' female characters Diana and Sophie seem to be real persons with a life of their own.
Wolfgang
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