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Bligh aficionados can’t let this opportunity pass without mentioning that our hero was also a dab hand in the charting department as seen in this facsimile of his chart of the mouth of the Humber from 1797.  His turn of phrase is, at times, truly wonderful “The best thing that can be said of entering the Humber in the night is to keep the High Light a handspike’s length open to the southward of the Low Light until ….”.  However, he doesn’t say how long Director’s handspikes were.

The “sudden departure” he speaks of was to join Admiral Duncan to be ready for a possible encounter with the Dutch.  In fact, the Battle of Camperdown, where Bligh in Director (64) caused severe damage to the Dutch Flagship Vrijheid and captured the Dutch commander Vice-Admiral Jan de Winter, didn’t take place until the following October. 

Bligh seems happy to quote lat and longs to the nearest second of arc (about 100 feet).  As I’ve noticed before, he seems to quote his longitudes relative to another place, not always Greenwich, whose position is likely to be fairly accurately known.  DaveP

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