NavList:

In another list entry - Re: Review of "Overboard" (history of Slocum) – on 30th December 2010, Apache Runner asks about the origins of the words ‘Dead Reckoning’....................
With regard to DR being Dead Reckoning or D'ed Reckoning or Deduced Reckoning it may be of interest that Capt. T. H. Sumner in his book of 1843, ‘Finding a Ships Position at Sea’ uses the words “dead reckoning”. (I do not have an original copy – but assume that the exact words from the original text are quoted true in Appendix A of the book ‘Line of Position Navigation’ by Michael Vanvaerenbergh and Peter Ifland.)
I imagine that many NavList members have access to numerous old texts – perhaps a search might reveal the oldest recorded use of the phrase and its exact spelling. It would be interesting to see the results – I for one am curious now that the question arises. I believe that if indeed the common spelling used in 1843 was DEAD – then it is unlikely that the word came from ‘deduced’.

Kinch.

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