NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Jack Aubrey's fixing of longitude
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2011 Jun 22, 06:09 +0100
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2011 Jun 22, 06:09 +0100
Wolfgang Patrick O'Brian has been called, "The greatest historical novelist of all time," by the literary critic of The Times. O'Brian's descriptions of ships, the way they were sailed and the people who sailed in them at the start of the 19th century are universally acclaimed for their authenticity. So, with such a high standard of scholarship in naval history in evidence elsewhere, are we not entitled to expect a similarly high standard of knowledge about early 19th century astro-navigation methods? I am not so concerned with actual events. I do not mind if there was no lunar occultation of Venus in the Indian ocean in 1804 or whenever. But, as with O'Brians working method elsewhere, if he took liberty with the timings and even with the placings, he did get the details right. I would have hoped he would have done so with a lunar occultation - if indeed that is what it was. That is why I put the question to the list. Perhaps he had got the description correct - if lacking in detail - and I was not recognizing what the method was he was describing. Geoffrey Kolbe. At 23:05 21/06/2011, you wrote: >This has been a lively discussion - but leading nowhere. Does anyone >really believe that Patrick O'Brian had any realistic notion of >astronomical navigation - leaving aside the finer points of lunars >etc.? What would be the basis of such a belief? Could one show from >his books that he had a solid grasp of these matters? He was a >gifted writer as far as the actual workings of a ship is concerned; >and he was as - a writer - at liberty to shift the actual time (and >place) of events if they fitted the tale - and he really did so as >he confessed in some forewords. So I wouldn't try to match his >writings with actual events. > >Wolfgang >---------------------------------------------------------------- >NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList >Members may optionally receive posts by email. >To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com >----------------------------------------------------------------