NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Slocum's lunars
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2003 Dec 15, 20:53 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2003 Dec 15, 20:53 EST
Fred Hebard wrote:
"I will keep note of further mention of sights as I progress through the
book."
In your "close reading", I hope you will not miss the point. It's a delightful little book. I was hoping that there might be some OTHER evidence somewhere regarding Slocum's navigation during the voyage. Lacking that, chasing commas and worrying about whether "is" means is... <g> ...well, it's not going to decide anything. He mentions one lunar.
And:
"I believe you have twisted the evidence into pretzels to support your
hypothesis that Slocum only shot one lunar. "
Blech. That's not a fun thing to say at all. Enjoy the book! Enjoy the book!!
And:
"When he mentions running down the latitude, he is bragging about his course not varying much even though he did not steer by the compass, since..." etc.
Wow. That's interesting. How did you come to that conclusion?? It certainly doesn't match what I've read of 19th century (and earlier) navigation. Running down the latitude was a well-established technique for ships that weren't certain of their longitude.
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
"I will keep note of further mention of sights as I progress through the
book."
In your "close reading", I hope you will not miss the point. It's a delightful little book. I was hoping that there might be some OTHER evidence somewhere regarding Slocum's navigation during the voyage. Lacking that, chasing commas and worrying about whether "is" means is... <g> ...well, it's not going to decide anything. He mentions one lunar.
And:
"I believe you have twisted the evidence into pretzels to support your
hypothesis that Slocum only shot one lunar. "
Blech. That's not a fun thing to say at all. Enjoy the book! Enjoy the book!!
And:
"When he mentions running down the latitude, he is bragging about his course not varying much even though he did not steer by the compass, since..." etc.
Wow. That's interesting. How did you come to that conclusion?? It certainly doesn't match what I've read of 19th century (and earlier) navigation. Running down the latitude was a well-established technique for ships that weren't certain of their longitude.
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
