NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: The history of Seafaring.
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2007 Dec 09, 07:11 +0000
From: Geoffrey Kolbe
Date: 2007 Dec 09, 07:11 +0000
Peter Fogg fired a broadside at George (NavList 4260) for his critique on a "coffee table" book about the history of seafaring. Not content with that, Peter then decided to come about and loose off another gratuitous blast! (NavList 4265) It may have been the intention of the originators of this list (or rather, its predecessor) that this be a forum where "actual sailors and practical navigators" (to quote Robert Eno) can discuss the practical aspects of finding their way about the oceans. But the list has evolved so that those who dominate the discussions are people who are primarily interested in the history of navigation. The regular contributors are people who delight in the arcane and abstruse. They enjoy nothing more than blowing the dust off an ancient treatise on some forgotten and long obsolete navigational method and sitting down for a good read. That Peter does not identify with such people is now more than obvious. So let me say that I do identify with the historians of navigation and the armchair navigators on this list. Let me say that if somebody decides to sit down and write a book on the history of seafaring, then there is no excuse for not writing exactly that - a factually correct, properly annotated, "History of Seafaring" with a detailed index - whether it be a coffee table book or a dissertation for a university examination. And let me say, Peter, that if you do not like what is being put up for discussion on this list - the solution is obvious. Geoffrey Kolbe --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ To post to this group, send email to NavList@fer3.com To , send email to NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---