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diff --git a/44206-0.txt b/44206-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d2bff10 --- /dev/null +++ b/44206-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,498 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44206 *** + + Old-Time + Nautical Instruments + + BY + + JOHN ROBINSON + + [Illustration] + + BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS + 1921 + + ONE HUNDRED COPIES + DEPRINTED FROM + + Old-Time New England + + APRIL, 1921 + + +[Illustration: SHIP GRAND TURK, 1786] + + + + +OLD-TIME NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS + +BY JOHN ROBINSON + +_Curator of the Marine Room, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass._ + + +What sort of instruments did the Colonial ship-masters carry? What did +they have on the _Mayflower_? What did Columbus use? And, to come down +to comparatively recent times, what instruments were available and were +actually used on the vessels during the commercial-marine activities +following the American Revolution and up to the time of the appearance +of steamships? + +These questions are often asked, not only by landsmen but by seafaring +men as well. The ship-master of today uses instruments so different +from those of Colonial times, or even of the earlier years of the +nineteenth century, that unless he has a penchant for research he +knows nothing about the earlier ones and certainly not how to use +them if by chance they come to his notice. Holding in his hand a +Davis quadrant, the skilful navigator of Salem's last square-rigger, +the ship _Mindoro_, which passed out of service in 1897, said to the +writer:--"I have no idea how to use it and I do not believe that there +is a ship-master sailing out of Boston today who does." The Davis +quadrant was in common use all through the eighteenth century and +probably later. It is figured and explained in a book on navigation in +1796. There are two in the Peabody Museum collection in Salem, dated +respectively, 1768 and 1773, and an undated one in the collection is +certainly older. Only the student of the history of navigation can +explain them or their uses. The English navigator, John Davis, the +inventor of this quadrant, in his "Seaman's Secrets", printed in 1594, +gives a list of instruments which should be taken on ships, but it is +to be feared few vessels carried them all or that owners were able to +provide them. It included,--sea-compass, cross-staff, chart, quadrant, +astrolabe, instrument to test compass variation, horizontal plane +sphere, and paradoxical compass. + +[Illustration: SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH ASTROLABE + +Full size. From Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.] + +[Illustration: UNIVERSAL RING-DIAL + +Diameter 3-1/2 inches. Owned by Mr. Parker Kemble.] + +No one knows exactly what instruments Columbus took with him on his +voyage in 1492. He undoubtedly had an astrolabe and a cross-staff. +The astrolabe was devised during the first millennium and Arabian +astronomers had perfected it as early as the year 700. It is really the +basis of all future instruments of its class,--cross-staff, quadrant, +sextant. Some of the most beautiful astrolabes preserved in museums are +those made for the Persian astronomers in the sixteenth and seventeenth +centuries. Columbus probably used the form devised by Martin Behaim +which had been adapted for use at sea about the year 1480. Observations +with the astrolabe required three persons, one to hold the instrument +plumb by the ring, another to sight the sun and adjust the arm, and the +third to read the scale. With these difficulties observations were, of +course, far from accurate, but approximate time and latitude could be +obtained. Another device was the ring-dial, or universal ring-dial as +the old works on navigation called it. This differed from the astrolabe +by having adjustable rings with the hours and scales engraved upon +them. Both of these instruments are now rare. + +No original cross-staff is known to the writer in any collection in +this country. It consisted of a rod thirty-six inches long on which +another of twenty-six inches was centered and arranged to slide up and +down at right angles to it. By sighting from the end of the longer rod +and moving the sliding bar until the sun was seen at one end of it and +the horizon at the other, the figure on the scale at the junction of +the rods indicated the sun's altitude and from this the latitude was +obtained. + +[Illustration: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING A CROSS-STAFF + +From Seller's "Practical Navigation," London, 1676] + +[Illustration: SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING DAVIS' QUADRANT + +From Seller's "Practical Navigation," London, 1676] + +Based on this instrument, by laying out the circle on a table, John +Davis, the explorer, devised his quadrant in 1586. At first the +observer used it by facing the sun, as the cross-staff had been +used, but a better form was made later where the observer had the +sun at his back. This instrument has been called by sailors "jackass +quadrant" and, supposedly from its shape, "hog-yoke." In early books on +navigation it is called "sea-quadrant." The earlier form used by the +observer standing back to the sun had a solid "shade vane" which slid +along the smaller arc of the instrument. By adjusting this a little +short of the supposed altitude of the sun and sighting the horizon +through the minute hole in the "sight vane" until it was seen through +the "horizon vane" at the apex of the instrument, and then gradually +moving the "sight vane" along the larger arc until the shadow of the +"shade vane" met the horizon line, the sum of the degrees on the two +scales indicated the sun's altitude. This was really the second form of +the Davis quadrant. In the third, the solid "shade vane" was replaced +by one with a low-power lens inserted in it arranged to focus on the +"horizon vane," thus approaching the idea of the reflected sun in +the Hadley quadrant and the sextant. A most interesting instrument, +half-way between a cross-staff and the Davis quadrant, is illustrated +in Seller's book on navigation published in 1676. He calls it a +"Plough." Above, it has the small arc of the Davis quadrant with the +sliding rod of the cross-staff below. These were, of course, imperfect +instruments, but still a great advance over previous devices to obtain +time and latitude. + +[Illustration: SECT. III. + +The Description and Use of the Plough. + +_The Description of the Plough._ + +This Instrument was antiently in use amonght Mariners, although at this +day it is not so commonly used as formerly; it consists of a Staff +having a small Arch, and three Vanes. + +_The Figure of the Plough._ + +The Staff is about two foot and a half long, or three foot at the most; +at the Center-end of which is erected a small Arch, that is divided +into 85 degrees; on the side of the Staff are set off the Graduations +proper to the Plough, beginning at five or six degrees, and encreasing +to ten degrees towards the Arch, every degree being divided into single +minutes. + +The Vanes are a _Horizon-Vane_, as A, and _Shadow-Vane_, as B, (to be +used as in the Quadrant) and a _Sight-Vane_ moving upon the Staff, as +at C. + +PAGE FROM "PRACTICAL NAVIGATION," BY JOHN SELLERS, LONDON, 1676] + +[Illustration: DAVIS QUADRANT + +"Made by William Williams in King St. Boston." An ivory plate has +"Malachi Allen 1769." Mahogany, 24 inches long, convex glass in the +shade vane; fine example of cabinet work. In Peabody Museum, Salem.] + +The Davis quadrants are usually made of ebony, rosewood, or other +dark woods, with boxwood scale arcs and could be made by expert +wood-workers. The numerous examples preserved attest the skill of the +old cabinet-makers, for they are never warped or twisted while their +jointing is a Chinese puzzle. Probably the _Mayflower_ carried a Davis +quadrant and quite likely an astrolabe, and of course, a compass, for +the compass had been in use for two centuries. + +Whether the compass was independently invented in Europe or was +borrowed from the Chinese is uncertain. The old marine compasses +were set in gimbals. The magnet was a thin bar attached, usually +with sealing wax, to the under side of the compass card, the whole +mounted in a thin bowl of turned wood. These were the compasses +of the eighteenth century. There is one in the Salem collection +inscribed,--"Benjamin King Salem in New England", with the date +"1770" cut in the box; another has the mark of Benjamin King, 1790. +A surveyor's compass, wooden throughout, including wooden sights, is +inscribed,--"Made by James Halsey near ye draw bridge Boston." The +liquid compass first suggested by Francis Crow in 1813 and improved by +E. S. Ritchie of Boston, has largely displaced the older devices. + +The "nocturnal", used at night, as its name signifies, appeared at +an early date, exactly when it does not seem possible to say. One in +the Salem collection is marked,--"Nathaniel Viall 1724". By adjusting +the movable discs to the date on the scale for the day of the month, +sighting the north star through the hole in the center and then +bringing the arm against the "guard stars", the hour was indicated with +reasonable accuracy. Good pictures and descriptions of the nocturnal +may be found in old books on navigation. + +In 1730, John Hadley in England and Thomas Godfrey in Philadelphia, +independently invented the octant, known for nearly two hundred +years as Hadley's quadrant. Both Hadley and Godfrey received awards +for their devices. Although called quadrant in this country it is +generally known elsewhere as octant, which is the better name, for the +instrument represents but one eighth of the circle. By the principle +of reflection, however, it covers ninety degrees and the scale is so +marked. The Davis quadrant with its two arcs does represent one fourth +of the circle and for that instrument the name is correct. + +The Hadley was a great improvement over the Davis quadrant and other +older devices for finding latitude. By moving the arm the sun is +reflected by the mirror at the apex and "brought down" to the horizon +line and the eye is protected by colored glasses of various degrees +of density through which the sun's rays shine. Catching the sun the +instant it is on the meridian (noon), the scale indicates the altitude +by which the latitude was figured with the Bowditch Navigator, used for +more than one hundred years by American seamen, or Moore's before that +and numerous others back to the early eighteenth century. The Hadley +quadrant is still used in its modern form with telescopic eye-pieces +although the sextant--one-sixth of the circle and by reflection +one-third--is a more accurate instrument and also may be used to make +lunar observations to obtain longitude, a complicated and difficult +matter, so difficult that the authors of the older works did not even +take trouble to explain the process, for only the most expert could +make this observation, nor were the results satisfactory. + +The sextant was devised about 1757 and as now made is framed wholly of +metal. To prevent corrosion, the scale, which is minutely divided, and +has a "vernier" with a magnifying glass to show divisions of minutes, +is made of gold or platinum in the best instruments. A half-circle +has been devised and is exceedingly rare. An example in the Salem +collection was made before 1818. A curious double-jointed dividers +accompanied it and the entry in the museum catalog reads,--"used +to correct a lunar observation for longitude." A full "circle of +reflection" is also sometimes used, more often on land than at sea. +This is a beautiful instrument and is not often met with in collections +or in use. All of these instruments are similar in character and may be +traced, as previously stated, to the ancestral astrolabe. + +[Illustration: NOCTURNAL + +"Nath'll Viall 1724." Boxwood, arm seven inches from centre to tip. In +Peabody Museum, Salem.] + +The early Hadley quadrants were huge affairs made of wood with an +arm twenty-four inches in length. Today they are more generally of +metal with arms from ten to twelve inches. Using the sextent or Hadley +quadrant the observer stands facing the sun, but old Hadley quadrants +were made with a "back sight" so that they could be used like the Davis +quadrant, thus making two independent observations the average of which +would ensure greater accuracy. + +[Illustration: HADLEY QUADRANTS (OCTANTS) IN PEABODY MUSEUM, SALEM + +1. "Made by John Dupee 1755 for Patrick Montgomerie." All wood, ebony, +arm 22 inches long. + +2. "Made by Ino. Gilbert on Tower Hill London for Hector Orr Augt. 6, +1768." Ebony, arm 20 inches long. + +3. "Norie & Co. London." Ebony and brass, _ca._ 1840. Arm 11-3/4 +inches, telescopic eyepieces, used by Capt. John Hodges. + +4. "Spencer Browning and Rust London." Ebony frame, brass arm 17 +inches, ivory scale, pencil inserted in cross piece, _ca._ 1800, used +by Capt. Henry King. + +5. "J: Urings London." All brass, arm 20 inches, back sight broken off, +_ca._ 1780, rare.] + +To obtain the ship's latitude with comparatively good results was an +easy matter with the quadrant and its fore-runners, but the great +problem for centuries was how to find the longitude, now universally +and quickly obtained by the chronometer and simple observations in +the morning or at noon. Spring clocks and watches appeared about 1530 +but they were unreliable and of no use on long voyages. Sand glasses +like those of the old Colonial churches were used on ships and so +conservative is the British mind that some were in use on British naval +vessels as late as 1828 and one authority states as late as 1839. +Greenwich Observatory was established in 1675 and a Royal Commission +was soon appointed with authority to award prizes for important +inventions in aid of navigation. A prize of £20,000 was finally +offered for a time-keeper that should meet certain requirements which +practically meant absolute accuracy. In 1767, John Harrison produced +the chronometer, based on the principle of an invention of 1735, and +eventually he received the reward. Chronometers were so expensive and +so hard to obtain that few New England ships had them until more than a +half a century later. Other devices were tried to obtain longitude by +lunar observations and by Jupiter's satellites, but these observations +were too difficult to be of practical use. Today, fine watches serve +for short trips and chronometers are carried by nearly all vessels +making long voyages. + +That so important an instrument as a telescope or spy-glass is rarely +mentioned in books on navigation or in sea journals seems strange. It +is exceedingly difficult to obtain information of any being taken to +sea, although one would think a spy-glass would be about the first +aid on ship-board especially when skirting the coast. Telescopes did +not become of practical use, even if the principle had been known, +until they were made in Holland in 1608. It is at least certain +that Columbus did not have one and probably there was none on the +_Mayflower_, although its passengers had recently come from Holland +where telescopes were invented a few years before. So far no references +to them have been found in a rather casual examination of old log-books. + +In the Marine Room Collection of the Peabody Museum at Salem, is a +spy-glass four feet long, octagonal in form, two and one-half inches in +diameter, with a short focusing tube. It was taken from a British prize +vessel off the coast of Ireland, in 1779, by Capt. James Barr in his +Salem privateer. Another glass of similar form, but longer and with a +mahogany case, was used on a United States naval vessel about 1815. The +spy-glass, familiar to everyone, in two or three sections, was used at +sea through the first half of the nineteenth century and is often seen +tucked under the left arm, in the portraits of ship-masters brought +home from foreign ports. Many of these were excellent instruments, +especially those from Dollond of London. There is also in the Salem +collection a rude telescope or spy-glass five and one-half feet long +with a copper case about three inches in diameter looking precisely +like a section from a house water-conductor. It focuses by a small +upper sliding section, fitted like a stove funnel. This glass was +brought from Nagasaki, Japan, by a Salem ship-master about 1865. It had +been used there to observe vessels coming into the harbor. It may be +Dutch and it is evidently very old. + +[Illustration: SEXTANTS IN PEABODY MUSEUM, SALEM + +1. "Bradford London." Brass frame and silver scale arm 14 inches long, +_ca._ 1815, used by Capt. George Bailey before 1840. + +2. "L. Bleuler, London." Ebony frame, ivory scale, brass arm 14 inches +long, _ca._ 1820, came from Plymouth, Mass. + +3. "G. Gowland 76 Castle St. Liverpool." Used by David Livingstone in +his African explorations and after his death sold at Zanzibar by order +of the Royal Geographical Society and bought by Capt. William Beadle, +of Salem, and used on some of his voyages.] + +The speed of a vessel was first obtained by throwing overboard a +floating subject at the bow and noting the time elapsed when it passed +an observer at the stern. From this the log line with "knots" was +derived, with the fourteen and twenty-eight seconds sand glasses to +record speed. A "knot" indicates a geographical or sea mile which has +been standardized at 6080 feet; the land or statute mile is 5280 feet, +therefore, if a vessel is said to be sailing at the rate of thirteen +knots, a railroad train going at the same speed would be running at +the rate of fifteen miles an hour. The term "knot" is used solely +to indicate rate of speed; the distance covered is always stated in +nautical or sea miles. "Heaving the log" meant throwing out from the +stern of a vessel a small float attached to a line running from a reel +held clear of the rail, the float remaining stationary in the water. +At the instant the log is "heaved" a sand glass is turned. On the line +are knots (hence the term), pieces of marline or rags tied through the +strands and spaced the same fraction of a mile apart,--above forty-six +feet and six inches,--which twenty-eight seconds is the fraction of +an hour,--about one one-hundred and twenty-eighth. Therefore, using a +twenty-eight seconds glass and checking the line the instant the sand +runs out, the number of knots and fractions paid out on the line will +at once indicate the number of sea miles per hour which the vessel is +going. This, of course, is doubled if the fourteen-seconds glass is +used, which is done when the vessel is going very fast. + + +The old log lines have been superseded by many forms of the "patent +log" and the museum is indeed fortunate which possesses an original +log line, reel and float in perfect condition. There is an excellent +example in the museum collections of the Marblehead Historical Society. +Once discarded, the lines were soon used to tie up packages and the +reels and floats were thrown away. The patent log with its revolving +blades, now universal, was devised by Humfray Cole in 1578; it was +improved by various persons from time to time but, strange to say, +did not come into general use for nearly three centuries. The rotating +blades in the water record the rate on an indicator on the vessel which +may be read at any time. So far, the earliest reference to the use of +a device of this sort among our New England navigators is the "Gould's +patent log" used by Captain George Crowninshield on his famous yacht +_Cleopatra's Barge_ during the voyage to the Mediterranean in 1817. + + +Charts were made in very ancient times but they were crude and almost +useless. The first nautical maps appeared in Italy at the end of the +thirteenth century, and it is said that Bartholomew Columbus brought +the first one to England in 1489. The close of the sixteenth century +saw many map makers at work, including Gerard Mercator whose name is +perpetuated in the familiar scale charts in our geographies known as +"Mercator's projection" which were the sea charts in general use. +Globes were carried on ships in preference to charts in the early +days and what is known as "great circle" sailing was evolved from +them. Davis describes it in 1594 and it is possible that Cabot knew of +the theory a century before. Such a simple instrument as a parallel +ruler was not invented until late in the sixteenth century and tables +of logarithms and Gunter's scale by which navigators make all their +calculations were not known until the year the _Mayflower_ sailed. + + +During the first century following the settlement of New England it is +probable that the small coasting and fishing vessels were navigated by +dead reckoning and not venturing far beyond the sight of land a compass +was the only instrument carried. But the larger vessels sailing from +Boston, Salem, Portsmouth, Newport and other ports on voyages to the +West Indies, England and Spain, it would seem should have carried +instruments with which observations could be made to obtain their +approximate position. Mr. George Francis Dow has searched the early +probate records of Essex County coast towns between 1634 and 1680, a +period of nearly fifty years, and finds but thirteen references to +nautical instruments in inventories and wills. Sometimes they are +listed as "marriners instruments" and in one case a quadrant is valued +at £1. Robert Gray of Salem, who died in 1661, possessed a "quadrant, a +fore-staffe (cross-staff), a gunter's scale, and a pair of Compasses." +John Bradstreet, who died at Marblehead the previous year, owned "3 +small sea books" valued at £1. 6s. The inventory of the estate of +Jonathan Browne of Salem, who died in 1667, discloses a "fore-staff," +and that of the estate of John Silsby of Salem, taken in 1676, lists +"marriners instruments and callender, 14s." + +In a very detailed inventory made in Salem before a notary publick on +Nov. 4, 1702, of the equipment of the ship _Province Galley_, 90 tons, +owned by Roger Derby, the only instruments for navigation that appear +are "Two Compasses, two ha[lf] ho[ur] glasses, a ha[lf] Watchglass, a +ha[lf] minute glass ... a hand lead line, a deep sea lead line." + +The _Boston News-Letter_, July 16, 1716, has the following +advertisement: "A Parcel of Mathematical Instruments, viz: Quadrants, +Meridian Compasses, all sorts of Rules, black lead Pencils, and brass +Ring Dials, etc. To be sold by Publick Vendue at the Crown Coffee +House in King's Street, Boston, on Thursday next." The same issue has +the advertisement of "William Walker in Merchants Row, near the Swing +Bridge," who had quadrants for sale. + +In looking back and noting the slow process of perfecting all nautical +instruments, the wonder is how the old ships were navigated through +distant seas without greater loss of life and vessels. The dangers +were real during our commercial-marine activities following the period +of the Revolution and the early nineteenth century, as attested by +reference to old newspapers and letters, and to such records as the +Diary of Rev. William Bentley of Salem, where nearly every Sunday some +of his parishioners asked for prayers for friends at sea or for the +loss of husband, son or brother. The shipmasters of Salem, Boston, +Providence, New York and Baltimore, undertaking distant voyages, had +few good charts--none for the new regions they visited--they had no +chronometers, few had sextants, and their compasses were frequently +unreliable. And yet these men--most of them were scarcely past their +majority in years--with the courage and enthusiasm of youth, in ships +filled with valuable cargoes, entrusted to their care by wealthy +owners, sailed into uncharted seas, visited unknown lands, and, all the +while rarely reported, finally came safely back, to their everlasting +credit and the enrichment of the country. + +We do not know exactly what instruments the old shipmasters carried +with them on these voyages, but we do know that they were comparatively +few and very inferior to those in use today. An idea of the paucity in +some instances may be obtained from the story of the ship _Hannah_, +condemned at Christiansand in 1810, in the protest of American +shipmasters which is now preserved in the New Haven Historical Society +collections. It reads: "We, the undersigned masters of American vessels +now in the port of Christiansand, having heard with astonishment that +one of the principal charges against the American brig _Hannah_, from +Boston, bound direct to Riga, and condemned at the prize court at this +place, is as follows,--that the said court have pronounced it absolutely +impossible to cross the Atlantic without a chart or sextant. We +therefore feel fully authorized to assert that we have frequently made +voyages from America without the above articles, and we are fully +persuaded that every seaman with common nautical knowledge can do the +same." + + +No doubt many valuable data lie hidden in old log-books and sea +journals, early newspaper files, shipping records of old business +houses and elsewhere. To anyone with time and the inclination for +research a fascinating field is open where material of historical and +scientific value may be found. The writer is not aware that any such +investigations have been made or accounts of any published. + + +Accurate knowledge of the instruments carried by Colonial shipmasters +on their voyages to the West Indies or along our coast and across the +Atlantic would be of much interest, and still more to know what were +supplied by owners or carried as their personal property by masters +and supercargoes for the longer voyages to Russia, the Mediterranean, +Africa, India, China, and the South Seas. It would be interesting to +know, besides this, what had been their experiences with them: the +accuracy of observations, how the compass behaved, etc. The early +nineteenth century shipmasters were close observers, and in his works +on navigation Lieut. M. F. Maury pays them high compliment for the +valuable assistance rendered in furnishing notes and observations on +currents, shoals, coast lines, compass variations and winds, for the +charts and sailing directions which he compiled. + +With these things in mind this paper has been prepared, hoping that +someone may be encouraged to take up the work systematically. It is a +subject which seems to have been neglected, and the results certainly +will repay much time devoted to its investigation. + +[Illustration: SCHOONER BALTICK, CAPT. EDWARD ALLEN + +Coming out of St. Eustatia, Nov. 16, 1765] + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Old-Time Nautical Instruments, by John Robinson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44206 *** |