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The subject of "luminescence" has cropped up recently in connection with
Pacific navigation.

However, nobody has done anything to explain what it did, how it worked, or
what navigational clues it provided, if any.

David Lewis has a few pages about it in "We, the Navigators", which I
attach, for the information of anyone interested. I don't know if any more
detailed information has been made available since his book, of 1972. If so,
perhaps someone on this list will tell us.

On the face of it, it appears most unlikely that any useful navigational
information could be provided by such a phenomenon. Of course, if it could
be shown that real navigation could be done on such a basis, then we would
have to take it seriously, whether we understood its basis or not. Lewis has
provided no such evidence in this extract. Until some such evidence appears,
it seems wisest to file the navigational use of luminescence away under the
category of "myth", and forget it.

George.

contact George Huxtable, at  george@hux.me.uk
or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222)
or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.

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