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Hewitt Schlereth expressed a little surprise that there would be navigators 
doing lunars aboard a whaling vessel in 1841. And many people, me included, 
have wondered why they would be "working lunars" as recorded in a couple of 
places in the logbook of the first voyage but no longitude by lunar was 
recorded on the corresponding date in the logbook. The explanation we've 
usually come up with is that this was practice or training. I've found a 
little real evidence that this was the case...

I tracked down a short article on temperance which is mentioned briefly in the 
book "Charles W. Morgan", originally by John F. Leavitt. Here's the text of 
the article (via Google Books) from "Sailor's Magazine", February, 1845 (a 
few weeks after the end of the maiden voyage of CWM):

"A Good Example.
-The whaling ship Charles W. Morgan, owned by Charles W. Morgan of New 
Bedford, and commanded by Capt. Thomas A. Norton of Edgartown, recently 
arrived at that port, with a full cargo of oil, after an absence of between 
three and four years. We learn, that it is the practice, and an excellent 
practice it is, for the pilots when they board a ship to take with them the 
temperance pledge, and thus give every sailor an opportunity to record his 
determination to become a temperance man, to the confusion of all grog-shop 
landlords and sharks. The pilot on boarding the Charles W. Morgan produced 
the tee-total pledge, and it was promptly signed by every person on board, 
from the Captain to the cabinboy!

We learn further that the strictest discipline and good order prevailed on 
board the ship during the passage. Captain Norton proved himself truly the 
sailor's friend, and nineteen or twenty of the seamen, who, when they shipped 
knew nothing of navigation, came home well instructed in the theory and 
practice of the art, and able to navigate and sail a vessel to any part of 
the world. Twenty-three of the crew and officers belonging to the Martha's 
Vineyard, and of course were true-blue-seamen, and native Americans. This 
speaks well for the good people of that island -Boston Journal."

So, sure enough, there was navigation "schooling" on that first voyage of the Morgan.

-FER
PS: John F. Leavitt, the author of the history of the Morgan that I've 
mentioned, was the very model of a Down East, Yankee New Englander. He sailed 
for many years on coasting schooners from Maine and wrote an excellent book 
on the declining years of the coasting trade entitled "Wake of the Coasters". 
He became an acclaimed marine artist and eventually an associate curator at 
Mystic Seaport Museum. Don Treworgy, whom we've discussed recently, was good 
friends with John Leavitt and his wife Virginia for many years. After 
Virginia passed away, she left their little house in the woods in Stonington 
to Don. From 2002 to February 15, 2004, just five years ago today, I rented 
the old Leavitt house from Don T. while I was working at Mystic Seaport and 
lived in the woods with the wild turkeys and the deer (and an attic full of 
annoying mice). Most of my earliest messages about navigation for this group 
were written sitting in the same study where John Leavitt did some of his 
paintings and wrote the book mentioned above. In fact, that's where I 
prepared that little map of the maiden voyage of the CWM back in December, 
2003. Yes, it's a small world out there in Mystic...




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