NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Whaleship Stonington's Lunars
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Jan 7, 04:50 EST
From: Frank Reed CT
Date: 2004 Jan 7, 04:50 EST
Jan Kalivoda asked:
"Are the records for single days as brief as published on your web? Aren't there any courses, any log readings, computations of daily runs, computations of the next courses to follow and so on?"
Almost never. Calculations were apparently often done in chalk on slates. Once in a while you'll find a time sight worked up on a back page in a logbook, but not in any systematic way. There are some personal journals that get into greater detail, and some ships' logs included a bit more navigational detail.
And you asked:
"Sample pages of virtual logbooks in navigation handbooks of this time (Bowditch and others) contained that items. Of course, the theory is always grey and the tree of life thrives green."
Some officers enjoyed recording weather data. Some recorded personal information. But few followed the prescriptions of the navigation manuals.
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
"Are the records for single days as brief as published on your web? Aren't there any courses, any log readings, computations of daily runs, computations of the next courses to follow and so on?"
Almost never. Calculations were apparently often done in chalk on slates. Once in a while you'll find a time sight worked up on a back page in a logbook, but not in any systematic way. There are some personal journals that get into greater detail, and some ships' logs included a bit more navigational detail.
And you asked:
"Sample pages of virtual logbooks in navigation handbooks of this time (Bowditch and others) contained that items. Of course, the theory is always grey and the tree of life thrives green."
Some officers enjoyed recording weather data. Some recorded personal information. But few followed the prescriptions of the navigation manuals.
Frank E. Reed
[X] Mystic, Connecticut
[ ] Chicago, Illinois
