NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Master & Commander
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2003 Dec 6, 06:55 -0400
From: Jim Thompson
Date: 2003 Dec 6, 06:55 -0400
Intriguing insight. Did USN officers at that time augment the ship's store of sextants and quadrants with personal ones? Jim Thompson jim2@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 Herbert Prinz > According to a table in Steven J. Dick, "Sky and Ocean Joined", > p.49, the Depot > of Charts and Instruments (the forerunner of the U.S.N.O) kept > 100 sextants for > 40 active ships in the early 1840s. Quadrants are not mentioned > in this table > but in other places we read about a need for "eight sextants and > four quadrants" > in 1832 or "12 double-framed sextants, 24 Quadrants", etc. The number of > chronometers, by the way, rose from about 35 in 1830 to 54 in > 1835 and to 131 in > 1846. For comparison: there were 600 to 800 compasses.
