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On 7 Dec 2004 at 0:51, Trevor J. Kenchington wrote:

> A fair point but perhaps not a relevant one: "Dead Reckoning" seems to date
> back to the 17th century at least. Anyone have an OED to hand? That might
> establish the first recorded use of the term.

From the online OED

Dead Reckoning

The estimation of a ship's position from the distance run by the log and
the courses steered by the compass, with corrections for current, leeway,
etc., but without astronomical observations. Hence dead LATITUDE (q.v.),
that computed by dead reckoning.

  1613 M. RIDLEY Magn. Bodies 147 Keeping a true, not a dead reckoning of
his course. 1760 PEMBERTON in Phil. Trans. LI. 911 The latitude exhibited
by the dead reckoning of the ship. 1840 R. H. DANA Bef. Mast xxxii. 124 We
had drifted too much to allow of our dead reckoning being anywhere near
the mark. 1891 Nature 3 Sept., The log, which for the first time enabled
the mariner to carry out his dead-reckoning with confidence, is first
described in Bourne's ?Regiment for the Sea?, which was published in 1577.
1917 BOSANQUET & CAMPBELL Navigation for Aerial Navigators i. 4 In aerial
navigation..Dead Reckoning is the position arrived at as calculated from
the estimated track and the estimated speed made good over the ground.
Ibid. 5 These data enable us to find a Dead Reckoning position. 1935 C. G.
BURGE Compl. Bk. Aviation 477/1 Dead reckoning..is a compromise between
pilotage and navigation.

[there is no entry for "ded reckoning"]

Ken Muldrew.

   

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