NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: taffrail log (Walker's log)
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2008 Oct 12, 23:09 +0100
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2008 Oct 12, 23:09 +0100
Paul Hirose, Carl Herzog, Jeremy wrote about the Walker mechanical taffrail log. Indeed, such a log is still in occasional use on my own small boat. However, it has to be withdrawn when I'm towing a mackerel line, as otherwise the two get inextricably entwined, even when towed from opposite quarters. I used to have a spare rotator, until one sad day when I engaged reverse gear, having forgotten that the log was still streamed. The description by the seller is quite wrong. The log that's illustrated does NOT measure speed (though some models did have a dial for speed). Instead, it measures distance run. If you want speed, you have to subtract distance-run, at two known times, and divide by the time interval. When I was in my teens, around 1950, I travelled from Liverpool to Belgium and back on a 2000-ton coaster driven by a triple-expansion steam engine. It carried a Walker log on the taffrail, and someone came down from the bridge every hour to read the distance-run. The taffrail was one of my favourite spots on the ship, especially when she got into some serious pitching off Land's End. I've always been pretty-immune to seasickness, and the motion, up and down as in a lift, was quite exhilarating; something I'll never forget. That particular log had an inertia-wheel, a spoked wheel about the sixe of a big dinner-plate, a few feet aft from the taffrail. Presumably that was intended to keep it spinning smoothly, but I've never worked out how, or if, that really worked, or if it mattered. . George. contact George Huxtable, now at george@hux.me.uk (switched from george@huxtable.u-net.com) or at +44 1865 820222 (from UK, 01865 820222) or at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---