NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Fw: Nautical Day
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2004 Feb 8, 18:09 +0000
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2004 Feb 8, 18:09 +0000
Henry Halboth wrote: > I have otherwise searched American navigational references available to > me back the year 1795, find no reference whatsoever to the Nautical Day - > makes me wonder if perhaps this may have been a European custom. Dana's "The Seaman's Friend" (my reprint is of the 1845 edition) states (p.134): "As soon as the sun crosses the meridian, eight bells are struck, and a new sea day begins." Unless somebody has reason to think that such a "sea day" followed the principles of the astronomical day, I would say that U.S. mercantile practice circa 1840 used the nautical day as standard. [I also have a reprint of the 1879 edition of Dana, which has identical wording. However, that may be nothing more than a failure to update the text of later editions.] Trevor Kenchington -- Trevor J. Kenchington PhD Gadus@iStar.ca Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555 Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus