NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Suitable floating platforms for sextant sight accuracy
From: Francis Upchurch
Date: 2015 Jul 22, 21:53 -0700
From: Francis Upchurch
Date: 2015 Jul 22, 21:53 -0700
Re Rum and sailors.
I think before Trafalgar, the daily ration for sailors was a gallon of beer (small beer, not very alcoholic?) + 1/2 pint rum.(which was meant to be diluted to make "grog"). It seems likely that Britannia ruled the waves while mostly drunk.("Dutch courage?"). The RoyalNavy abolished the rum ration in 1970, the New Zealand Royal Navy, not until 1992. I wonder whether celnav accuracy was also effected by the demon drink?
cheers,splice the main brace!
Francis