NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From the Scillies to lunars and cooks
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 03, 01:55 -0400
From: Frank Reed
Date: 2007 Oct 03, 01:55 -0400
I'm not done with Shovell (decided to give that another pause), but there's another Scillonian shipwreck anniversary this year, a 100th anniversary. And this one leads --well, "leads" in an amusingly roundabout way-- all the way to lunar observations and even James Cook in Hawaii. "There is no history in the Scillies except shipwrecks", r so some sage once said. Of course, we know the story of Admiral Shovell's shipwreck in the Association. The 300th anniversary is just a few weeks away. But there's another interesting shipwreck with an anniversary a few weeks after that. It's the wreck of the world's one and only seven-masted schooner. The Thomas W. Lawson was the last great hope of the true believers in sail in the US over a century ago. It was a 400-foot long monster with SEVEN towering masts, all schooner-rigged (which leads to the question, "whaddaya call all them masts??" --there are many answers). But it was no throw-back. Its hull was steel. It had electric lights and automatic winches. Unfortunately, it was "too much, too late". It was difficult to find cargos suited to its vast capacity in ports able to handle its large size. The Thomas W. Lawson was soon converted into a bulk crude oil carrier --an early oil tanker. In December of 1907 (as promised, the 100th anniversary is coming up), the Thomas W. Lawson crossed the Atlantic carrying crude and, like so many other ships including Shovell's Association, she was wrecked in bad weather on the reefs of Scilly. And that was the end of the seven-masted schooner. The Thomas W. Lawson is the link that I'm going to use to connect us back to the history of lunars and back to Captain Cook. The Lawson was designed by a respected designer, Bowdoin B. Crowninshield, a member of one of the oldest New England families, and one with extensive maritime interests. In fact, his great gandfather was Benjamin Williams Crowninshield who was US Secretary of the Navy from 1814 to 1819. And here's where things get fun; Benjamin W. Crowninshield's brother, George Crownshield Jr., was near the center of one of the most frequently told stories in the history of lunars. George Jr. was the owner of the first famous yacht in American history, a yacht which he named "Cleopatra's Barge". Jumping to its eventual demise, Cleopatra's Barge was wrecked some years later in Hanalei Bay in Hawaii after becoming the royal yacht of King Kamehameha II of Hawaii. Now that might be connection enough to Cook who was killed in Hawaii just a few decades earlier, but there's another way to get to Cook, and its by way of a cook. Now back to the early days of "Cleopatra's Barge"... George Crowninshield Jr. inherited a vast fortune from his father who was one of those early Salem mariners who sailed to the Indies and returned as wealthy as kings. The younger George was less serious than his father and decided in 1816 to build himself an ocean-going yacht (he was a great admirer of Napoleon and there were rumors that he intended to rescue the former Emperor from Saint Helena). He spent an estimated $100,000 --an astronomical sum back then-- building Cleopatra's Barge. It was a small brigantine, some 83 feet on the waterline, 23 feet beam. And it was outfitted with every luxury that money could buy and then some. The interior woodwork is still famous in Salem. George Jr. was a man with strange tastes. He had the starboard side of the vessel painted with a rainbow stripe in multiple colors. The port side was painted with a peculiar herring-bone pattern. Cleopatra's Barge was designed for entertaining, and it had a kitchen better-equipped than most on land and stocked with fine wine. Naturally his crew were taken from the best in New England and included hired musicians and a skilled chef as well. Crowninshield set sail for Europe aboard Cleopatra's Barge in March 1817. His tour of the Mediterranean attracted thousands of sightseers in every port he visited. During their stop in Genoa, the vessel was visited by a famous early 19th century astronomer and an avid lunarian (we're getting closer!), Baron Franz Xaver von Zach. And here it's time to let Zach speak for himself. He wrote of his experiences aboard Cleopatra's Barge a few years later: " How does it happen that the Commanders of French vessels, with thirty-four schools of Hydrography established in the Kingdom, either know not, or do not wish to know, how to calculate the longitude of their vessels by Lunar distances, while even the cooks and negroes of American vessels understand it? " I will now relate what I once witnessed on board an American vessel, the Cleopatra's Barge, which arrived in the month of July, 1817, at the port of Genoa from Salem, one of the handsomest Towns in the State of Massachusetts, U. S. A., Lat. 42� 35' 20" N., Long. 73� 9' 30" W. All the city crowded to see this magnificent palace of Neptune; more than 20,000 persons had visited this superb floating palace, and were astonished at its beauty, luxury and magnificence. I went among others. The owner was on board; he was a gentleman of fortune of Salem, who had amassed great riches during the late war with Great Britain. He was brother to the Secretary of the Navy of the United States. " This elegant vessel was built for his own amusement, after his own ideas, upon a plan and model new in very many respects, and was considered the swiftest sailer in America. He had traveled or sailed for his pleasure in this costly jewel that appeared more the model of a cabinet of curiosities than a real vessel. He had left America in this charming shell for the purpose of visiting Europe and making the tour of the Mediterranean & had already touched at the ports of Spain, France, Italy, the Archipelago, Dardanelles, coasts of Asia, Africa, etc. We have since heard of the death of this gentleman, a short time after his return to Salem. His name was George Crowninshield--he was of German origin--his ancestor was a Saxon officer who, having the misfortune to kill his adversary in a duel, sought refuge in America. The captain of this beautiful vessel was a lively old gentleman, a cousin to Mr. Crowninshield--his son, a young man, was also on board. I shall not here enter into detail concerning the remarkable construction of this vessel, still less her splendor--the public journals have already noticed them. " In making some enquiries respecting my friends and correspondents in Philadelphia and Boston, among others I mentioned Dr. Bowditch. ' He is the friend of our family, and our neighbor in Salem,' replied the old Captain. 'My son, whom you see there, was his pupil; it is properly he, and not myself, that navigates this vessel; question him and see if he has profited by his instructions.' " I observed to this young man, 'you have had so excellent a teacher in Hydrography that you cannot fail of being well acquainted with the science. In making Gibralter what was the error in your longitude?' The young man replied, 'Six miles.' 'Your calculations were then very correct; how did you keep your ship's accounts?' 'By chronometers and by Lunar observations.' 'You then can ascertain your Longitude by Lunar distances?' " Here my young captain appearing to be offended with my question, replied with some warmth, 'What! I know how to calculate Lunar distances! Our cook can do that!' 'Your cook!' Here Mr. Crowninshield and the old Captain assured me, that the cook on board could calculate Longitude quite well; that his taste for it frequently led him to do it. 'That is he,' said the young man, pointing to a Negro in the after part of the vessel, with a white apron about his waist, a fowl in one hand, and a carving knife in the other. '" Come here, John,' said the old Captain to him, 'this gentleman is surprised that you understand Lunar observations. Answer his questions.' I asked, 'By what method do you calculate Lunar distances?' The cook answered, ' It is immaterial-- I use some time the method of Maskelyne, Lyons, or Bowditch, but I prefer that of Dunthorne, as I am more accustomed to it.' I could hardly express my surprise at hearing that black-face answer in such a manner, with a bloody fowl and carving knife in his hands. "' Go,' said Mr. Crowninshield,' lay aside your fowl and bring your books and journal and show your calculations to the gentleman.' The cook returned with his books under his arms, consisting of Bowditch's Practical Navigator, Maskelyne's Requisite Tables, Dutton's Logarithms and the Nautical Almanack, abridged from the Greenwich Edition. I saw all the calculations this Negro had made on his passage, of Latitude, Longitude, Apparent Time, etc. He replied to all my questions with admirable precision, not merely in the phrases of a cook, but in correct nautical language. " Baron von Zach' surprise at this man's navigational skill clearly has some racism in it, but it also must have arisen in part from the fact that he could not bring himself to understand that a "cook" on this sailing yacht was in fact a skilled chef and a man of considerable education. To me, the most relevant bit of this story for those of us who are interested in lunars today is the casual way in which "John" tells us not to worry about the method that is used for clearing lunars. "It is immaterial", he says. Use Bowditch's Method, or Lyons's, or Maskelyne's or Dunthorne's; it doesn't really matter. Now I've seen this particular quotation many times before, but there's always been a little something that bothered me about it. If he learned his lunars from Bowditch, either the man or the book, then how does he find himself most comfortable using Dunthorne's method. That method was NEVER included in Bowditch's Navigator. Sure, you can find it in the Requisite Tables, but how would he have learned it and become more comfortable using it when the distinctly easier methods in Bowditch were widely used at this time? The answer is in the next paragraph in Baron von Zach's account which is not always included when this story is re-told. Zach continues: " This cook had sailed as cabin-boy with Captain Cook in his last voyage round the world and was acquainted with several facts relative to the assassination of the celebrated navigator at Owhyhee, February, 1779. 'The greatest part of the seamen on board the Barge,' said Mr. Crowninshield, 'can use the sextant and make nautical calculations.' " Indeed Mr. Crowninshield had with him many instructors. At Genoa he had taken one acquainted with Italian--he had also on board an instructor in the French language, a young man who had lost his fingers in the Russian campaign. What instruction! what order! what correctness! what magnificence was to be observed in this Barge; I could relate many more interesting particulars concerning this true Barque of Cleopatra." So there you have it. This famous "John" has usually been used as a foil for suggesting that anybody could do lunars --if he could do them, then anyone should be able to. But he was actually a man with a long history on the oceans. He had sailed with James Cook himself and may have learned lunars a decade or more before Bowditch first published his book. This would surely explain his familiarity with Dunthorne's method which otherwise seems very strange. It would be fascinating to know what John had done in his life between his time as a cabin boy with Cook to his days as a cook, more accurately, a world-class chef, aboard Cleopatra's Barge. As promised, I took you from the 100th anniversary of a shipwreck in the Scillies to James Cook in the Pacific in six easy steps. ;-> -FER --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---