NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Precision of lunars
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2007 Apr 29, 13:37 +1000
From: Peter Fogg
Date: 2007 Apr 29, 13:37 +1000
George wrote:
It seems to me that this is little more than speculation and wishful thinking on George's part, and thus tends to detract from the other valid points he makes. My own readings about such vessels, written typically by crew members, indicates a general dearth of much sophistication when it came to navigation. Often they seemed to make their way via little more than some form of dead reckoning, assisted by experience and instinct. Lunars were far beyond them.
Either they were too difficult or they were perceived to be too difficult. Same thing, really, in terms of the practical effect.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
No, the remnants of the "lunar brigade" would have been the small trading
vessels, making port-to-port passages under sail across the oceans. Brigs
and schooners of 100 tons or so, parish-rigged, which still existed in
profusion in the second half of the 19th century, scraping a living in the
slowly-dying days of sail. Vessels which kept going by avoiding any
unnecessary expense; when one chronometer might have been afforded, but
backups would be out of the question. Those are the vessels where a lunarian
might still be found on board. And those are the vessels that tended to be
neglected by museums and by history. I wonder how many, from that category,
are represented by logs in the Mystic collection. Perhaps there are indeed
many, in which case Frank's evidence from those logs carries some weight.
It seems to me that this is little more than speculation and wishful thinking on George's part, and thus tends to detract from the other valid points he makes. My own readings about such vessels, written typically by crew members, indicates a general dearth of much sophistication when it came to navigation. Often they seemed to make their way via little more than some form of dead reckoning, assisted by experience and instinct. Lunars were far beyond them.
Either they were too difficult or they were perceived to be too difficult. Same thing, really, in terms of the practical effect.
--~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~
To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com
To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com
-~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
