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Lisa you're kidding, right?  Captain Cook may have been a great
adventurer but not a scientist armed with 21st century testing
information.  That was back in 1768 and they in those days were just
starting to learn about electricity let alone understand it.  Trust me,
the chain idea will help some but I wouldn't bet my boat's life on just
that.  Phil

Lisa Fiene wrote:

> Phil wrote:
>
>>  Yes, bad idea.  Lightning will follow the path of least resistance
>
> >     and the chain sounds like a high resistance path.  Some energy will
> >     leak this way but most "may" find another path to ground.
>
> I'd have to challenge you on that comment Phil.  I think George's idea
> of a chain has a great precedent - Captain James Cook on his 1768-1770
> voyage of exploration on Endeavour!
>
> "The onset of winter drove Endeavour off course, and on April 19, the
> ship arrived off New Holland (Australia). Nine days later, Endeavour
> entered Botany Bay (just south of modern Sydney), which they named "for
> the great quantity of New Plants & ca" collected there over the next
> week. Endeavour sailed again on May 6, skirting the coast of Australia
> until June 10, when the ship was holed on the Great Barrier Reef near
> Cape Tribulation (15?47S, 145?34E). "This was," wrote Cook, "an alarming
> and I may say terrible Circumstance and threatend immidiate destruction
> to us as soon as the Ship was afloat." It took two days to free the
> ship, and the leak was only stopped by fothering, that is, drawing a
> sail impregnated with oakum under the ship's bottom to stop the leak.
> Nine days later, Cook landed at what is now Cooktown. Repairs to the
> ship lasted six weeks, during which Lieutenant Gore shot and stuffed a
> kangaroo. After claiming New Holland for the British Crown, Cook sailed
> Endeavour through the Torres Strait, stopping at Savu Island (west of
> Timor), and then sailing on to the Dutch entrep?t at Batavia (now
> Jakarta). There, thanks to an "electrical chain" Cook ordered set up for
> the purpose, Endeavour survived a bolt of lightning that did serious
> damage to a Dutch East Indiaman".
>
> I personally have always thought James Cook was an exceptional navigator
> and seaman!
>
> Lisa
>

   

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