Sextant
Page 27
2 The Battle of Jutland took place on May 31–June 1, 1916. It was the only full-scale encounter between the British and German fleets of World War I. The risks were enormous, especially for the British. Winston Churchill had chillingly warned the British commander-in-chief, Sir John Jellicoe, that he was the one man on either side who could lose the war in a single afternoon. If the British Grand Fleet were to suffer serious losses, it would no longer be possible to maintain the crucial naval blockade of Germany, and if Britain itself were then cut off, the war would very soon come to an end—with a German victory. It was essential that the British fleet should survive largely intact, however desirable it might be to destroy the German one. It was therefore vitally important that Jellicoe adopt the right tactics, and this depended on knowing not only where the enemy ships were, but also where his own forces stood in relation to them. When the Grand Fleet sailed from its base in Orkney, it was responding to intelligence—based on intercepted radio signals—that German warships were leaving harbor and heading out into the North Sea. Seventeen hours later, as the two vast armadas converged off the coast of Denmark, DR errors had accumulated, and poor visibility had—according to Colin—prevented navigation officers aboard the various different British units from fixing their positions by sextant sights. At the same time those of Jellicoe’s subordinates who were already in contact with the German fleet failed to pass on any useful information about its course, speed, and position. The commander-in-chief was therefore struggling to interpret conflicting navigational information about the whereabouts of his own forces, while remaining uncertain where the enemy fleet—now approaching him at a combined speed of 50 miles an hour or more—was going to appear. As much by luck as by good judgment, Jellicoe maneuvered the Grand Fleet into exactly the right position to intercept the German fleet. The battle itself—though bloody—was not strategically decisive, but if Jellicoe had made the wrong decision about how to deploy his battleships, it might have been a catastrophe for the British. It is sobering to reflect that one of the factors affecting the outcome of the battle—and therefore conceivably of the entire war—may have been the misty North Sea weather, which precluded the use of the sextant. Celestial navigation remained as important in 1916 as in the days of Cook, and it was to remain so until the 1940s.
3 Nowadays most yachts crossing an ocean would at least be equipped with an Emergency Position-Indicating Radio Beacon (EPIRB)—a device that automatically sends out a distress signal that can be picked up by search-and-rescue satellites. They might also carry a satellite telephone. We had none of these.
4 An ingenious mechanism, governed by a wind vane and powered by a blade beneath the water, that controls the tiller by means of a system of ropes and pulleys.
5 May 27ff.
6 See Dash.
7 Dash 5–6.
8 Many of the so-called soldiers were in fact retired veterans of earlier wars, most of whom were elderly and unfit for any kind of service. See Williams (1999) 19–22.
9 Anson 22.
10 It was not until the end of the eighteenth century that the crucial importance of fresh fruit and vegetables in preventing scurvy was finally recognized by the Royal Navy. See Williams (1999) 224–26.
11 Anson 144–45.
12 Ibid. 115.
13 Ibid. 117.
14 Williams (1999) 47.
15 Ibid. 47–49.
16 Anson 117–18.
17 Ibid. 149.
18 Ibid. 150.
19 Ibid. Anson’s instructions placed the island in the wrong latitude and much too close to the coast. See Williams (1999) 54. Williams states that the Centurion first tried to reach the island by “sailing down its latitude,” but this is inconsistent with the account quoted here, and with the track chart in the authorized account of the voyage.
20 Anson 151.
21 Ibid. 152. See also May 29ff. A young officer named John Campbell was among Anson’s crew. In 1757 he was to be given the task of testing the practicality of the lunar-distance method of determining longitude at sea.
22 Anson 393.
23 Williams (1999) 139.
24 Ibid. 216–18.
CHAPTER 6: THE MARINE CHRONOMETER
1 Although they were certainly accomplished seafarers, we know little about the wayfinding techniques the Greeks and Romans employed and it has been assumed that they had no special navigational instruments, relying instead on their skill and experience—rather like the Polynesian navigators. However, recent research suggests that the hitherto mysterious Antikythera device, recovered in 1900 by sponge divers from a shipwreck off southern Greece that dates from the first century BCE, employed a remarkably complex system of gears to reveal how the sun, moon, and five planets known at that time behaved. If the Greeks were capable of producing mechanisms like this, we may have underestimated their navigational technology.
2 May 9.
3 Heilbron 155–56, 167–70.
4 The first of these—La Connoissance [sic] des Temps—was published in France in 1678.
5 Andrewes 94.
6 Other research conducted on the same expedition revealed that the strength and direction of the earth’s gravitational field varied from place to place. This result had important implications for surveyors. It also meant that the rates of pendulum clocks would be subject to slight but significant variations.
7 The Loch of Stenness, on Mainland. Curiously enough, one end of this baseline was anchored by the prehistoric stone circle of the Ring of Brodgar.
8 Quoted in Cotter (1983).
9 Danson 180.
10 Ibid. 15.
11 Cotter (1968) 192ff.; Howse 11–13.
12 Heilbron 235–36.
13 Ibid. 346–48.
14 Ibid. 348.
15 Williams (1994) 93.
16 Part of the problem with the first trial was that the longitude of Port Royal (the harbor in Jamaica where the tests were carried out) was still uncertain.
17 Howse 125.
18 Andrewes 282ff.
CHAPTER 7: CELESTIAL TIMEKEEPING
1 Cotter (1968) 199ff.
2 Ibid. 202.
3 Ibid. 81.
4 Hewson 85.
5 James Bradley, letter to Mr. Cleveland, Secretary of the Admiralty, April 14, 1760, reproduced in Mayer cxi–cxv.
6 Howse 127–28.
7 Ibid. 27–39.
8 Cotter (1968) 206.
9 Ibid.
10 Howse 157, 200.
11 Ibid. 50–52.
12 Ibid. 221.
13 Ibid. 51.
14 Ibid. 83.
15 Quill 171–73.
16 Howse 77–79, 125–26.
17 These followed the example set by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille, who had made lunar observations at sea in the early 1750s. Lacaille’s own, rather less accurate, lunar tables were first published in the Connoissance des Temps for 1761. See Howse 41.
18 Rodger 623.
19 Howse 94.
20 Ibid. 93–94.
21 Norie 226.
22 Raper xii.
23 Ibid. 127.
CHAPTER 8: CAPTAIN COOK CHARTS THE PACIFIC
1 Whitfield 105.
2 Howse and Sanderson 93, 125.
3 Beaglehole (1974) 102ff.
4 Fry 121.
5 Beaglehole (1974) 87–90.
6 Ibid. 145.
7 Ibid. 134.
8 Ibid. 137.
9 Ben Finney, “James Cook and the European Discovery of Polynesia,” in Fisher and Johnston 20.
10 John Elliott quoted in Beaglehole (1974) 361–62.
11 Beaglehole (1955–69) II.304–305.
12 Forster 441.
13 Beaglehole (1955-69) II.322.
14 Ibid. 643.
15 Forster 446–47.
16 Beaglehole (1974) 335.
17 Beaglehole (1955–69) I.343–44.
18 Beaglehole (1962) II.81.
19 Beaglehole (1955–69) I.353.
20 Ibid. 375.
22 Ibid. 378.
23 Beaglehole (1962) II.106.
24 Beaglehole (1955–69) I.379.
25 Ibid.
26 Beaglehole (1974) 246.
27 Ibid.
28 The National Archives, ADM 51/4545.
29 Beaglehole (1974) 154.
30 Beaglehole (1955–69) I.9n.
31 Ibid. II.61n.
32 Hough 205.
33 Beaglehole (1955–69) II.cxii.
34 Ibid. 525.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid.
37 Forster 239.
38 Beaglehole (1955–69) II.665.
39 Ibid. 692.
40 Ibid. cxi n.
41 Beaglehole (1974) 129.
42 Rodger 382–83.
CHAPTER 9: BOUGAINVILLE IN THE SOUTH SEAS
1 Bideaux and Faessel 5.
2 Bougainville (1771) 16.
3 Cook was sniffy about the lack of navigational detail in the first edition of the Voyage, but this deficiency was largely remedied in the expanded, second edition of 1772.
4 See Bideaux and Faessel 19ff.
5 Bougainville (1772) I.214.
6 Bougainville (1771) 120.
7 Suthren 108, 132.
8 Bougainville (1771) 155.
9 Ibid. 158–61.
10 Ibid. 170.
11 Ibid. 185.
12 Ibid. 189–90.
13 Ibid. 190.
14 Ibid. 191.
15 Ibid. 195–96.
16 Ibid. 253–54.
17 Bideaux and Faessel 260n.
18 Bougainville (1771) 194.
19 Ibid. 198.
20 Ibid. 209.
21 Ibid. 197.
22 Ibid. 199, 201.
23 Ibid. 219.
24 Ibid. 216.
25 Ibid. 227–28 (1771).
26 Ibid. 200ff.
27 He was not, however, using the lunar-distance method. See Bideaux and Faessel 221n.
28 Bougainville (1771) 209.
29 Ibid. 255.
30 Ibid. 256.
31 Ibid. 257.
32 Ibid. 258.
33 Ibid. 261.
34 Ibid. 263.
35 Ibid. 278–79.
36 Bougainville (1772) I.xxxii.
CHAPTER 10: LA PÉROUSE VANISHES
1 Dunmore 104–105.
2 Ibid. 127.
3 Ibid. 177–78.
4 Milet-Mureau I.246–48.
5 Ibid. 8.
6 Ibid. 43.
7 Ibid. 159.
8 Ibid. II.46.
9 Ibid. I.252.
10 Ibid. II.7.
11 Dunmore (1994) I.lxx.
12 Milet-Mureau I.13–61.
13 Ibid. II.161ff.
14 Ibid. 178.
15 Ibid. 301.
16 Ibid. 302.
17 Ibid. 303. Similar fruitless searches for reported reefs or rocks in midocean—known as vigías from the Spanish word for “look out”—were to absorb the energies of explorers for many years to come.
18 Ibid. 306.
19 Uncle of the builder of the Suez Canal.
20 Milet-Mureau III.154.
21 Ibid. 141.
22 Ibid. 186ff.
23 Ibid. 188.
24 Ibid. 189–90.
25 Ibid. 191.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid. 198.
28 Ibid. 200–205.
29 Letter to Lecoulteux de La Noraye, February 7, 1788, quoted in Dunmore (1985).
30 Dunmore (1994) I.xxx.
31 Ibid. ccxl.
32 Dillon 1.33–34. The island was then also known as Vannicolo.
33 Ibid. 34–35.
34 Ibid. II.166–67.
35 Ibid. 194–95; 216–18.
36 Ibid. 306.
37 Ibid. 205.
38 Ibid. 254–55.
39 Ibid. 398–99.
40 Ibid. 400–403.
41 Ibid. 397.
42 Dunmore (1985) 295–96.
43 Dunmore (1994) I.lviii.
CHAPTER 11: THE TRAVAILS OF GEORGE VANCOUVER
1 Coleman 13.
2 Ibid. 21.
3 Ibid. 32.
4 Ibid.
5 Ibid. 35.
6 Ibid. 38.
7 Vancouver I.v–vi.
8 Bougainville (1771) 17.
9 Vancouver I.xxix.
10 Raban 50–51.
11 Coleman 41.
12 Ibid. 40.
13 Ibid. 47, 50.
14 Ibid. 50–51.
15 Vancouver I.195–6–vi.
16 Quoted by Andrew David, “Vancouver’s Survey Methods and Surveys,” in Fisher and Johnston 51–52.
17 David, “Vancouver’s Survey Methods and Surveys,” in ibid. 52–53.
18 See Nicholas A. Doe, “Captain Vancouver’s Longitudes—1792,” Journal of Navigation, vol. 48 (1995) 374–88. Doe has demonstrated that Vancouver could have discovered these errors when he returned home by comparing the predictions in the Nautical Almanac with the actual observations made by the astronomers at Greenwich on the dates in question, as Flinders was later to do on his return from Australia.
19 Andrew David discusses Vancouver’s navigational difficulties in “Vancouver’s Survey Methods and Surveys,” in Fisher and Johnston 64–67.
20 Vancouver I.319–20.
21 Ibid. 321.
22 Ibid. 363–64.
23 Ibid. 420ff.
24 Coleman 98, 135.
25 Fisher and Johnston 7–8.
26 Coleman 139–43.
27 Coleman 149–50.
CHAPTER 12: FLINDERS—COASTING AUSTRALIA
1 Scott 33–37.
2 Ingleton 10.
3 Baker 7. Quotation from letter to Sir Joseph Banks, December 8, 1806.
4 Scott 12–13.
5 Ibid. 19.
6 Ibid. 29.
7 Ibid. 44ff.
8 It is often claimed that Flinders invented the name “Australia,” but the word was apparently first used in the late seventeenth century in a translation from a French work of fiction. See Baker 107.
9 Flinders I.xcvi.
10 Ibid. xcvii.
11 Ibid. xcix–xcx.
12 Ibid. cxiii.
13 Ibid. cxvii.
14 Scott 108.
15 Flinders I.cxix–cxx.
16 Ibid. cxxxviii.
17 Named after Alexander Dalrymple.
18 Ibid. clxiii.
19 Ibid. clxxi.
20 Ibid. clxxxii ff.
21 Ibid. cxciii.
22 Scott 154–55.
23 Flinders I.3–5.
24 Ibid. 4.
25 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25/4.
26 Ibid. FLI/25/5.
27 Ibid. FLI/25/2.
28 Ibid. FLI/25/6.
29 Ingleton 99.
30 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25/7.
31 Flinders I.7.
32 Ingleton 110.
33 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25.
34 Flinders I.9.
35 Ibid. 10
36 Letter to Ann Flinders, 31 May 1802: National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25/14.
37 Flinders I.106.
38 Ibid. 189.
39 Ibid. 190.
40 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25/14.
41 Flinders I.230.
42 Ibid. 229.
43 Flinders II.48–49.
44 Ibid. 26.
45 Ibid. 143.
46 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25/18.
CHAPTER 13: FLINDERS—SHIPWRECK AND CAPTIVITY
1 Flinders II.299.
2 Ibid. 309n.
3 Ibid. 312–13.
4 Ibid. 315.
5 Ibid. 321.
6 Ibid. 327.
7 Ibid. 323.
8 Ibid. 351.
9 Ingleton 267.
10 Flinders II.360–64.
11 Ingleton 340.
12 Brown and Dooley 120.
1
3 Ingleton 340–41.
14 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/25/26.
15 Flinders II.485.
16 Flinders I.iv–v.
17 Ibid. 256.
18 Ibid. 258.
19 Ibid. iii.
20 Ibid. 255.
21 Ibid. iii.
22 Ibid. 259.
23 Ibid. 261.
24 Ingleton 419.
25 Ibid. 420.
26 Ibid. 421.
27 Ibid. 423.
28 Flinders II.333.
29 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/11.
30 Sterne 95.
31 National Maritime Museum, Flinders Papers FLI/11.
CHAPTER 14: VOYAGES OF THE BEAGLE
1 “On First Looking Into Chapman’s Homer.”
2 FitzRoy I.xix.
3 Ibid. 73.
4 Ibid. 72.
5 Ibid. 74.
6 Ibid. 77.
7 Ibid. 78.
8 Ibid. 79.
9 Ibid. 179.
10 Ibid. 180–81.
11 Ibid. 153.
12 Ibid. 218.
13 Ibid. 222.
14 They were then encamped at the entrance to Skyring Water. See FitzRoy I.229.
15 Ibid. 231–32.
16 Ibid. 240–41.
17 Ibid. 203.
18 Ibid. 363.
19 Ibid. 373.
20 Ibid. 383.
21 Ibid. 432.
22 Ibid. 434.
23 Ibid. 435–36.
24 Gribbin and Gribbin 119, 129, 136.
25 FitzRoy II.25–26.
26 Ibid. 344.
27 Ibid.
28 Ibid. 371–72.
29 Gribbin and Gribbin 256.
30 Ibid. 273.
31 Ibid. 274.
32 Ibid. 290.
CHAPTER 15: SLOCUM CIRCLES THE WORLD
1 It may be a little unfair to credit Sumner exclusively with this “discovery,” as several earlier navigators had made similar observations: see Cotter (1968) 271–75.
2 Cotter (1968) 277.
3 Ibid. 278.