NavList:

   

Reply

While reading "Dreadnought" by Robert K. Massie, I came across this
passage in the chapter on Jacky Fisher:

[quote]

Then, on July 12, 1856, he was promoted from cadet to midshipman and
embarked in the 21-gun steam corvette Highflyer. At fifteen, he was
about to enter five colorful years on the China Station.

Highflyer's captain was Charles F. A. Shadwell, whom Fisher later
described as "about the greatest saint on earth... His sole desire for
fame was to do good, and he requested that when he died he should be
buried under an apple tree so that people might say, 'God bless old
Shadwell!' He never flogged a man in his life."

Shadwell was fascinated by astronomy, had published works on the
subject, and, in consequence, had been elected a Fellow of the Royal
Society. Alone with this unusual interest among naval officers on the
China Station, he seized the opportunity to pass it along to this lively
midshipman. "He was always teaching me in his own cabin," Fisher
remembered. "I could predict eclipses and occultations and play with the
differential calculus through him."

[end quote]

The name sounded familiar, so I searched for him at the ADS site. Yes!
Shadwell has several works to his name:

http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-abs_connect?db_key=AST&db_key=PRE&qform=AST&arxiv_sel=astro-ph&arxiv_sel=cond-mat&arxiv_sel=cs&arxiv_sel=gr-qc&arxiv_sel=hep-ex&arxiv_sel=hep-lat&arxiv_sel=hep-ph&arxiv_sel=hep-th&arxiv_sel=math&arxiv_sel=math-ph&arxiv_sel=nlin&arxiv_sel=nucl-ex&arxiv_sel=nucl-th&arxiv_sel=physics&arxiv_sel=quant-ph&arxiv_sel=q-bio&sim_query=YES&ned_query=YES&adsobj_query=YES&aut_logic=OR&obj_logic=OR&author=Shadwell&object=&start_mon=1&start_year=1830&end_mon=12&end_year=1886&ttl_logic=OR&title=&txt_logic=OR&text=&nr_to_return=200&start_nr=1&jou_pick=ALL&ref_stems=&data_and=ALL&group_and=ALL&start_entry_day=&start_entry_mon=&start_entry_year=&end_entry_day=&end_entry_mon=&end_entry_year=&min_score=&sort=SCORE&data_type=SHORT&aut_syn=YES&ttl_syn=YES&txt_syn=YES&aut_wt=1.0&obj_wt=1.0&ttl_wt=0.3&txt_wt=3.0&aut_wgt=YES&obj_wgt=YES&ttl_wgt=YES&txt_wgt=YES&ttl_sco=YES&txt_sco=YES&version=1

One document not on the list is the review of "Notes on the management
of chronometers and the measurement of meridian distances" that appeared
in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1855:

http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-iarticle_query?bibcode=%3f%3f%3f%3fMNRAS..15&db_key=GEN&page_ind=195&data_type=GIF&type=SCREEN_VIEW&classic=YES

The book itself has been scanned and is online at archive.org, along
with the book on latitude by simultaneous altitudes and the tables for
the prediction of occultations and eclipses. I suppose he taught Jacky
Fisher how to use those tables.
http://www.archive.org/search.php?query=creator%3A%28shadwell%20charles%29

A summary of Shadwell's career is here:
http://www.pdavis.nl/ShowBiog.php?id=88

Regarding the wound that left him lame, Massie says it was a musket ball
in the foot. He had to endure an agonizing operation without anesthetic,
afterward remarking, "Well, Fisher! I am afraid I made a great deal of
noise this morning."

--

   

Reply