NavList:

Some have asked me if I could post the entire book, Certaine Errors in Navigation by Edward Wright, 1599 so here is a link to the entire book:

http://www.fer3.com/arc/imgx/Wright-Errors-in-Navigation-(1599).pdf

The first page of the PDF is a duplicate of two pages further in but I repeated it at the beginning to make readers aware of some errata to help prevent any confusion at the first reading. At the end I have also attached a larger copy of the chart (in sections) that is included in the book. 

The book is very readable and you will enjoy meeting Mr. Wright. Wright was not a sailor or navigator but a mathematician and he published, in this volume, the first table of Meridional Parts that for the first time allowed navigators of that era (17th century) to accurately draw a navigational chart based on Mercator's projection. He also includes a table of declination of the sun but, be aware, when comparing his table to modern almanacs that his dates are Julian dates because England did not adopt the Gregorian Calandar until 1742. To convert his dates to our dates add ten days.

He also provides a graphical way to compute the great circle distances between two points on the earth which we have discussed before. it works well. Interestingly, this method could also have been used for computing the altitudes of stars for use with the Marcq St.- Hillaire method of computation but that method was not developed until almost three centuries later in 1875.

Don't be concerned with the ancient type face, you get the hang of it quickly.

Enjoy!

gl