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A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Visibility Range Table (1848)
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2026 Nov 12, 11:35 -0800
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2026 Nov 12, 11:35 -0800
In Hart's "Romance of Yachting" there's a peculiar table for range of visibility. See below (attached). How many problems can you find with this table? I have mentioned the book many times before (though not this table). It's a weird mid-19th century ramble, like an early 20th century "blogger" meandering from one topic to another. He provides brief, detailed instructions on latitude and longitude calculations, which I have described before.
Mostly Hart's book is weird to the point of disaster. Herman Melville was asked to review it and considered it an abomination! :) Weird can be fun, too. It's like riffing on a bad movie.
Frank Reed
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