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Could the phrase "working lunars" mean they were working through the
night - by the light (of the silvery light) of the moon?  :-)

Less facetiously, I ask because you indicated the log said the "crew"
were working lunars and my notion of whaleship crews at that time is
that they weren't math-heavy.  I seem to recall hearing that Bowditch
began American Practical Navigator with basic arithmetic.

Hewitt

On 1/30/09, frankreed@historicalatlas.com  wrote:
> I posted this a long time ago. Time for a re-run.
>
>  I'm attaching a distillation of the logbook of the maiden voyage of the 
whaleship Charles W. Morgan. Many of you have been aboard this vessel, the 
last remaining whaleship of the great 19th century American whaling fleets; 
it is the center-piece of the collection at Mystic Seaport. Each dot shows 
the recorded latitude and longitude of the Morgan. Most of the longitudes 
were longitude by chronometer, sometimes by account. The yellow/green circles 
represent longitude by lunars while the squares are cases where the logbook 
reports the crew were "working lunars" (presumably for practice) but no 
longitude by lunar was recorded. The voyage began in September, 1841 and 
ended back in New Bedford at the very beginning of 1845. This was a fairly 
typical whaling voyage of that time period.
>
>  -FER
>
>  >
>
>

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