NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Longitude as a Romance
From: John Kabel
Date: 2001 Jul 12, 7:32 AM
From: John Kabel
Date: 2001 Jul 12, 7:32 AM
Speaking of romance . . . I have been reading the Patrick O'Brian series of books with Capt. John Aubrey, RN and Dr. Steven Maturin as the main characters. The first book in the series was "Master and Commander, followed up by "Post Captain," etc. Now, in addition to being a very good read, this series is highly acclaimed for its historical accuracy. O'Brian was not a university scholar, but has been widely accepted for his meticulous technical detail regarding the sailing of British naval vessels of the Nelson era. The series covers about 1798, and I'm into the 1812 era now. Jack Aubrey struggles with his chronometers at one point when his best one of the three he averages is smashed in a combat action. But through the whole series he never relies solely on his chronometers, being very faithful to his "lunars" and his noon sights. Now, fiction is not fact, but when it has the force of such meticulous and proven technical detail behind it, I would suggest that we might accept the fact that lunars did not disappear immediately with the advent of the chronometer. My two shillings' worth. John Kabel Past Commander and GPS Instructor London Power and Sail Squadron London, Ontario, Canada