NavList:

Alex you wrote:
"Reference: S.E. Morison, The  European discovery of America. The  Northern
voyages, AD  500-1600.
Oxford UP, 1971, page 141:

'In discussing navigational  methods, one is apt to ignore
the gap between the invention of the device and  persuading owners
to supply it or sailors to use it.
For instance, the  chronometer... was invented in 1750;
but the royal French navy in 1833, with  250 ships, had only 44
chronometers'. "

While it's certainly possible  that it's true, this is a secondary source,
and it would be nice to see some  confirmation from a source written in that
period. Did the author cite a source  for the information? The British Royal Navy
had a similar number of chronometers  by 1790 at the latest. Is it possible
that the French were forty years behind  the British? Of course, France had
been through one emperor and two revolutions  by this date, one destructive and
chaotic (1789) the other constitutional  (1830), and its colonial ambitions
were focused a bit closer to home --on  Algeria with only a little water to
cross. So perhaps it's true that they had so  few chronometers in 1833. It would be
interesting to confirm  it.

-FER
http://www.HistoricalAtlas.com/lunars 


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