Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => The O' Club => Topic started by: oneway on September 09, 2011, 01:07:19 AM
-
Youngsters will find this boring and without bearing...
Navigators and seamen will relish in it...as Slocum traverses the Southern Trade winds east on his way to Polynesia...moving north after his trials at Magellan / Tierra Del Fuego
=======
Quoted from Slocum.
Unique was my experience in nautical astronomy from the deck of the Spray -- so much so that I feel justified in briefly telling it here. The first set of sights, just spoken of put her many hundred miles west of my reckoning by account. I knew that this could not be correct. In about an hour's time I took another set of observations with the utmost care; the mean result of those was about the same as that of the first set. I asked myself why, with my boasted self-dependence, I had not done at least better than this. Then I went in search of a discrepancy in the tables, and I found it. In the tables I found that the column of figures from which I had gotten an important logarithm was in error. It was a matter I could prove beyond a doubt, and it made the difference as already stated. The tables being corrected, I sailed on with self-reliance unshaken, and with my tin clock fast asleep. The result of these observations naturally tickled my vanity, for I knew that it was something to stand on a great ship's deck, and with two assistants, take Lunar observations approximately near the truth. As one of the poorest of American sailors, I was proud of the little achievement alone on my sloop, even by chance though it may have been.
I was en rapport now with my surroundings, and was carried on a vast stream where I felt the buoyancy of 'His' hand who made all the worlds. I realized the mathematical truth of their motions, so well known that astronomers compile tables of their positions through the years and the days, and the minutes of the day, with such precision that one coming along over the seas even five years later may, by their aid, find the standard time of any given meridian on the earth.
To find local time is a simpler matter. The difference between local and standard time is longitude expressed in time -- four minutes, we all know, representing one degree. This, briefly, is the principle on which longitude is found independent of chronometers, is beautifully edifying, and their is nothing in the realm of navigation that lifts one's heart up more in adoration.
Joushua Slocum
SV Spray
1898, Pacific Ocean, Southern Trade Winds, bound for the Marquesas out of Tierra Del Fuego
-
Joshua Slocum was the first human to circumnavigate the planet single handed in a sailing vessel
He essentially built her (SV Spray) in the year 1897...from the bones of an old 38' Oyster Scull in Boston Bay...and then he set sail in the year 1898 for the adventure of a lifetime...at the age of 51 years old...
It is an amazing story...of an amazing man...who despite nothing more than the 3'rd grade education...then wrote and amazing book of his adventures...that 110 years later...captivates the mind...and his book is still in print to this day...
Slocum was an astounding man...check him out...
-
+1 it's an amazing book!
-
I did not know Coombzy could read :old:
-
Lots of stuff in Wooden Boat Magazine on Slocum over the years. Amazing courage (craziness) to cruise the world single handed, without many of the modern safety devices.
In a similar vain of intrepid spirit, I would also recommend reading "The Endurance" or "Shackleton's Boat Voyage" as a good follow up to that. Albeit he is English and all, probably ate pies before his boat was crushed by the ice, his leadership over that period of time is nothing less than extraordinary.
There are lots of good books stemming from the explorers of those days. <S> great call on Slocum, it blew me away to see his name in a BBs thread.
-
I finished reading the book about Shackleton called "Resolute" and others in the Arctic looking for the Northwest Passage. It is unbeleivable the struggles these people went through. One group was stranded in the ice for over 2 years before finally being able to get out and sail away. Makes you think how todays tough guys would fare in similar situations without all their technology and modern conveniences. These folks were "Chuck Norris" tough times 10.......... I'll gladly mail my copy to anyone wanting to read it if they cant find it at their local library.
EZRhino
-
Impressive vocabulary for a late 1800's 3rd grade education. Perhaps it sheds some light as to how far "advanced" we are today??? ;)
I just may have to check out his work at the library the next time I visit.