NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Mid XIX century Nav
From: Bruce Stark
Date: 2005 Nov 20, 12:52 EST
You wrote about ". . .a nice chart of the harbor of Nagasaki prepared by the famous Russian
naval officer I.F. Kruzenshtern in about 1805. If you go to the enlarged
version, you can just about make out the latitude and longitude of the city on the
chart as: 32 44 (and some seconds) N and some longitude which maybe reads 230
07 "W von Greenwich". It's interesting that the Russian chart, published in
German, is already referencing longitudes to Greenwich at this early date."
Also interesting, to me at least, is that he uses WEST longitude, as if he'd come into the Pacific around the Horn. Could that be the case? Not knowing anything about his voyage, it doesn't seem likely to me.
Bruce
From: Bruce Stark
Date: 2005 Nov 20, 12:52 EST
Frank,
You wrote about ". . .a nice chart of the harbor of Nagasaki prepared by the famous Russian
naval officer I.F. Kruzenshtern in about 1805. If you go to the enlarged
version, you can just about make out the latitude and longitude of the city on the
chart as: 32 44 (and some seconds) N and some longitude which maybe reads 230
07 "W von Greenwich". It's interesting that the Russian chart, published in
German, is already referencing longitudes to Greenwich at this early date."
Also interesting, to me at least, is that he uses WEST longitude, as if he'd come into the Pacific around the Horn. Could that be the case? Not knowing anything about his voyage, it doesn't seem likely to me.
Bruce
