Brad wrote .........Craig: Is the answer to the last question kangaroos?........... Cook wrote in his journal http://southseas.nla.gov.au/journals/cook/contents.html .......... 17 April 1770 Tuesday 17th At 2 PM the wind came to WSW at which time we tack'd and stood to the NW, before 5 oClock we was obliged to close reef our topsails having a strong gale with very heavy squals, about this time a small land bird was seen to pearch upon the riging, we sounded but had no ground with 120 fathoms of line. At 8 oClock we wore and stood to the Southward until 12 at night than wore and stood to the NW untill 4 AM when we again stood to the Southd haveing a fresh ^gale at WSW attend with squals and dark hazey unsettled weather untill 9 oClock at which time it fell little wind and the weather ^soon after clear'd up which a little after a 11 gave us an oppertunity of takeing several observations of the Sun and Moon the mean result of which gave 2070..56' West Longitude from the Meridion of Greenwich, from these observations the Longitude of the Ship at Noon was 2070..58' and by the Log 2080..20' the difference being on^ly 22' and ^this error may as well lay in the one as the other, our Latitude at noon was 390..36' So and Longde made from Cape Farewell 220.22' Wt ........... G'Day, Cook didn't make any mention of kangaroos in his journal Brad:~) However, he was trained in astronomy and had astronomers with him for measuring the transit of Venus in Tahiti. I think he was also on the Board of Longitude and would have been well aware of the tables produced by Warner and Maskelyne. I was well pleased to have found his journal entry above. It looks as if Cook might have used a process such as recalibrating his clock for local time every day against sunrise, sunset and noon. The clock would then only have to remain within spec for 24 hours and not for months or years to maintain synchronism with Greenwich. Presumably there were enough stars visible in both the southern and northern hemispheres so that Cook in Australia could use the tables developed at Greenwich. Cook was within a degree of longitude when he reached the equator after surveying the east coast of Australia on his first voyage. As Robert said it was such a tricky method and judging from the above journal entry not much better than using the kind of clock that was available prior to Harrison. When Cook went on his 2nd voyage he took along a Harrison clock. Robert, Longitude is a wonderful book and the illustrated version is well worth getting, it has a great many side notes that are missing from the text only version. All the best, PeterO *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Fri Jul 30 2010 - 01:33:13 PDT
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