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Re: Published, Shackleton and Worsley, Journey to South Georgia Island
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2018 Dec 20, 16:10 -0500

Ed,

You can now be assured that the characters we say they are, really are. The proof is all there.

The prior attempt at the navigational details was Lansing, 1959. He included his "interpretation" of the logbook as an appendix. It is quite clear to me that he didn't understand the technical details of CN, and simply skipped over them. Lansing understood the basic Lat / Long positions but not the workings or the planning, or the differences between a DR position vs a CN fix. Lansing certainly did not understand time, and by that I mean the chronometers and how CE and CR manipulate that time snd longitude

Without the details of the log, you cannot know that there were TWO chronometers aboard the Caird. Lansing totally misses that. To be sure, that was George's observation, there were two! Major props to George on that one.

I am glad you are enjoying the paper. Don't miss the part about which charts he used. That was a bit of serendipity. We were working on the Joinville observation, when Worsley notes the terrible "coffee table" nature of his reference, Nordenskjold. Ah Ha! Why use that arm chair explorer book when he might have referenced more authoritative sources.

Brad

On Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 12:32 PM Ed Popko <NoReply_EdPopko@fer3.com wrote:

The paper "Navigation of the James Caird on the Shackleton Expedition" is a labor of love. Reading, transcribing and cross checking Worsley's worn and tattered notebook entries is very challenge. In this paper, you get both a full chronical of their voyage and a clear view of the 19th century celestial navigation technique as it's actually practiced. Worsley had to hit the exact latitude of South Georgia Island for their landfall; miss the mark and everyone is doomed. It's interesting to compare the actual page images with the clear interpretation text and to follow their voyage.
It's also surprising that in all the numerous books about Shackleton's expeditions, no one till now, has detailed the celestial navigation methods that made them possible. The spotlight has always been on Shackleton himself, his carisma and leadership. Without Worsley's navigation skills, Shackleton would be just another explorer footnote in history.

Hats off to Lars, George, Brad and Robin for these excellent papers!
Ed

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