NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: John D. Howard
Date: 2016 May 14, 14:29 -0700
Frank,
Please help me find information on whaling navigation. I have read many of the logbooks in the New Bedford Whaling Museum on line and at the Mystic seaport on line that you linked. I read the " Introduction to Whaling Logbooks and Journals " and nowhere can I find any information on navigation other than " course SSW" or "morning heavy fog" and the like.
Did someone ( a navigator or first mate ) keep a navigation log? From what I have read in textbooks a ship would use a sextant and at least take a noon shot of the sun and maby a AM or PM time shot but there seems never to be a record kept of the information.
I have read about the Charles W. Morgan on her 21st voyage across the Pacific but cannot find any navigation info let alone any cel-nav info.
Any help in pointing me in the correct direction would be appreciated.
Thank you.
John H.
