NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Time at Sea in 1703
From: Chuck Taylor
Date: 2004 Nov 3, 19:08 -0800
From: Chuck Taylor
Date: 2004 Nov 3, 19:08 -0800
I recently purchased a copy of "Marine Navigation Instruments" by Jean Randier. It was originally written in French in about 1977(?) and was translated into English in 1980. It is profusely illustrated with a wealth of wonderful photos, but what I am writing about is an anecdote I found in it about timekeeping at sea in the days before chronometers. Note that this was before the days of time zones, and ships were operated on local (solar) time. I hope that some of you may find it as enjoyable as I did. "Sand glasses ... are very early instruments for measuring the elapsed time and were to be found on board ship from the time of the first great maritime expeditions. ... The very fine sand with which sandglasses were filled was generally finely crushed eggshell, or, according to the ancient chronicles, black powdered marble 'baked nine times'. On board ship the half-hour glass was turned on the dot of noon and then at each half hour until the next day. It soon became common to strike the watch bell whenever the glass was turned, which explains the old sailing-ship custom of giving a double stroke for the full hours and four double strokes at midnight, four o'clock, eight, midday and so on to signify the number of times the glass had been turned. "Accuracy was entirely relative, as will be seen from the account of the fleet of Duguay Trouin, which was caught in a thick fog off Spitzbergen in 1703: 'Fog is such a frequent occurrence in these parts that it led us into a most strange error. Aboard our ships half-hour sand-glasses are used that the helmsmen are required to turn eight times to measure each watch, which lasts four hours, at the end of which time the watch is relieved. It is fairly common, however, for the helmsmen to turn the glass before all the sand has run through in order to shorten their watch a little. This is called 'swallowing the sand'. This error, or rather misconduct, can be corrected only by taking the altitude of the sun; however, as we were without sight of the sun for nine consecutive days because of continuous fog and as in that season and latitude the sun only circles the horizon, making the days and nights equally bright, in the course of eight days the helmsmen managed, by dint of swallowing the sand, to turn day into night and night into day so that all the vessels of the squadron without exception found an error of at least ten or eleven hours when the sun reappeared. This had so upset the times of eating and sleeping that we all generally wanted to eat when it was time to sleep and sleep when it was time to eat. However, we did not take any notice of this until we discovered the truth by taking the altitude.'" -- Chuck Taylor 48d 55' N 122d 11' W __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Check out the new Yahoo! Front Page. www.yahoo.com