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Herbet, you wrote:
"Two of those meridians  are practical
for navigators, because the corresponding ephemerides are  readily
available: Greenwich and Paris. If you look at the political  situation
in which Krusenstern is operating, it's clear why he has to go  for
Greenwich. I assume that by doing so he established a quasi  standard
from which to deviate afterwards nobody had good  justification."

Thanks. Very interesting.

Also, you've reminded  me of something I read in Marguet's History of
Navigation. The French lunar  distance tables in the "Connaissance des Temps" were
once again copied from the  British Nautical Almanac from 1800 to 1807 (as they
had been previously, from  1774 to 1778). I don't know whether they were
adjusted for the Paris meridian,  which would be simple, or copied verbatim. In any
case, it means that Greenwich  was the sole independent source of lunar
distance data for navigators worldwide  in the early Napoleonic period.

[Marguet, "Histoire Generale de la  Navigation", 1931. No longer available at
the original web address. Originally  pointed out to Navigation-L by Wolfgang
Koeberer.]

-FER
42.0N 87.7W,  or 41.4N 72.1W.
www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars

   

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