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A lot depends on what you'll be satisfied with. Some of the books written in
the twentieth century are quite good, and give an excellent overview. But if
you want to know how navigators from Captain Cook's time up to the middle of
the nineteenth century saw things, and did things, you'll have to read the
old navigation manuals. Perhaps a librarian can help you find a pre-1880
Bowditch, Norie, or some such.

I've been using the current interest in Lewis & Clark's astronomical
observations as an excuse to write papers for The Navigation Foundation's
Navigator's Newsletter explaining how the old navigators thought about and
dealt with the time-longitude problem, and to demonstrate how they worked
their observations. Their way of thinking and doing things was logical and
elegant, but virtually incomprehensible in terms of twentieth century ideas.
It's a lost world. Great fun to explore.

The Navigator's Newsletter has also published excellent articles by other
writers on similar subjects. The Navigation Foundation is a nonprofit, no
advertising, strictly volunteer-run organization founded by Admiral Thomas E.
Davies and other retired navy officers for the purpose of keeping celestial
navigation alive. The web sight can be found at:

http://www.olyc.com/navigation/navfound.htm

Bruce Stark

   

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