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Re: How did Sumner navigate in 1837?
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2003 May 17, 07:46 -0300
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2003 May 17, 07:46 -0300
Thanks for this, George. All I've had so far in preparing my draft (and my understanding, as I grope up the CN learning curve in general) is the brief excerpt from Sumner in Bowditch. So as you astutely point out, I took literary license and read between the lines. I appreciate the academic reminder, and the helpful pointers. Jim Thompson jimt@jimthompson.net www.jimthompson.net Outgoing mail scanned by Norton Antivirus ----------------------------------------- > -----Original Message----- > From: Navigation Mailing List > [mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of George Huxtable > Sent: Saturday, May 17, 2003 3:05 AM > To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM > Subject: Re: How did Sumner navigate in 1837? > > > More about Sumner's observation in 1837. > > Jim Thompson said- > > >He was pretty damn gutsy to have sailed ENE in poor > >visibility toward the rocks, assuming that his longtitude was west of > >Small's Light. When Small's Light popped out of the mist, he > must have been > >both immensely relieved and incredibly gratified. > > Jim says "in poor visibility", and "out of the mist". He may know > more than > I do. All I have to go on at present is Cotter's account of the > event, with > a copy of Sumner's chart and some quotes from Sumner's text. But I find no > mention there of "in the mist". Indeed, Cotter managed a Sun > altitude at 10 > am, and to do that he would need a clear horizon, several miles away. > > Cotter's plan was not then particurly "gutsy" in my view, but it was > logical. As the Smalls rocks were well marked, except in thick weather it > would be quite safe to approach them as Sumner did in the prevailing > Southeasterly gale, knowing he could always bear away when the light-tower > was sighted. He might well first sight the Welsh coast (near Milford Haven > entrance), which was a few miles further on. What he was trying to do was > to keep up to windward as far as he possibly could until he knew exactly > where he was, to be sure he could keep clear of the rocks off the > Southeast > corner of Ireland, which was a lee shore. Prudent, yes. Inventive, > certainly. "Gutsy", no. > > So, when Jim says- "It will make an interesting lecture, if I > >can reduce the elements sufficiently to lay terms and spice it up with > >information and graphics about a shipboard navigator's life in those > >days.", I hope he won't spice it up any more than is justified. > > Jim said- > > >If that old DR latitude was way off, then his longtitude was too -- which > >was one of the points that navigators in those days might not have > >appreciated, because they did not commonly understand the concept of a > >celestial LOP. > > Well, that's the whole point, really. Sumner had shown that > WHATEVER his DR > latitude was, based on an old noon Sun several days earlier, he > simply HAD > to be on the oblique position line he had calculated entirely from the one > Sun observation made at 10am on that day. > > It's true that navigators "did not commonly understand the concept of a > celestial LOP", but they were certainly aware that the longitude they > derived from a "time sight" was crucially dependent on knowing an accurate > latitude. > > There were several ways of deriving the longitude from a > time-sight and the > latitude, but what he probably would use would be- > > cos (P/2) = sqrt( sin s sin (s - ZX) / (sin PZ sin PX)) > > where P is the local hour angle, ZX is the Sun's zenith distance, > PZ is the > co-lat, PX is the polar distance, and s = 1/2 (ZX + PZ + PX) . > > It's an interesting question, why it had to wait until 1837 > before mariners > had the commonsense to realise that an oblique position line > could be drawn > from a single altitude of any body with a known position in the sky. > Looking back, it seems such an obvious step. I hope the new book on "Line > of Position Navigation" will go some way to enlighten us. > > George Huxtable. > > > > > ================================================================ > contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at > 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy > Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. > ================================================================ >