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Ken,

Excellent questions.  I don't have good answers,
but for those wanting to follow the discussion,
there is a rough chart along with part of the
narrative from Sumner himself on pages
7 and 8 of this pdf file:

  http://www.i-DEADLINK-com/bowditch/pdf/chapt01.pdf

I think that one significant factor may have
been that the wind was from the SE, making
Ireland a lee shore.

Best regards,

Chuck Taylor
47d 55' N, 122d 11' W

--- Ken Gebhart  wrote:

> I am looking for help in understanding something
> about Thomas Sumner's event during which he
> discovered his line of position.  Space does not
> permit recounting the details of his situation, nor
> a drawing of the navigational plot of his attempt to
> find Small's light.  However, this is covered in
> detail in Bowditch and many other navigational
> books.  At the very end of the recount it says" The
> DR position was found to be in error by 8 min too
> far south, giving a longitude of 31 min, 30 sec too
> far west.  The result to the ship might have been
> disasterous had this wrong position been adopted".
> My question is howso?
>
>
>
> Can anyone tell me from historical insight of
> navigational procedures what course Sumner would
> have set had he not questioned his first position?
> In other words would he have turned to go straight
> through St. George's Channel, or would he have
> turned to acquire Small's Light first? I can see
> that the latter choice might have been more
> dangerous because he would have gone south of
> Small's light, and his eta would have been upwards
> of 2 hours late, catching him off-guard when land
> (or rocks) appeared. But there were the Saltees
> Rocks light and the Tusker Rock light off the coast
> of Ireland which would have given him some
> protection had he opted to go straight for the
> Channel.
>
>
>
> This is not just a pedantic question I have.  I talk
> about this situation in my seminars to show how his
> line of position was discovered, but thankfully no
> one has questioned me about exactly how a disaster
> was averted.  Any comments are welcomed.
>
> Ken



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