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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Traverse board.
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Nov 29, 19:21 -0000
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2005 Nov 29, 19:21 -0000
In connection with a forthcoming publication, a colleague and I are looking for a line-drawing of a traverse-board. That's the device, rather like a dartboard, with holes to represent compass-points, that was hung up on a bulkhead near the wheel. Pegs (on strings) were pushed in to mark the successive courses steered during a watch, and another block of holes, below, was used to indicate the successive speeds logged. Using such a device, a watchkeeper did not need to be literate. I know of two photos of traverse-boards, one in E G R Taylor's "The Haven-finding art", and one on J E D Williams' "From Sails to Satellites". For clarity, though, a line drawing is greatly preferred to a half-tone picture. Any suggestions? George.