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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Old-time Nautical Instruments, by John Robinson.
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+<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" />
+  </head>
+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44206 ***</div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_001.jpg" width="500" height="728" alt="TITLE PAGE" />
+</div>
+
+<h1>Old-Time<br />
+Nautical Instruments</h1>
+
+<p class="center">BY</p>
+
+<p class="center">JOHN ROBINSON<br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px; border-style:solid;
+border-width:1px;">
+<img src="images/i_012.jpg" width="250" height="339" alt="SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING A CROSS-STAFF" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="center"><br /><br />BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS<br />
+1921
+</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p class="center">ONE HUNDRED COPIES<br />
+DEPRINTED FROM</p>
+
+<p class="center">Old-Time New England</p>
+
+<p class="center">APRIL, 1921</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_005.jpg" width="500" height="197" alt=">SHIP GRAND TURK, 1786" />
+<p class="center f08">SHIP GRAND TURK, 1786<br /><br /></p></div>
+
+<h2>OLD-TIME NAUTICAL INSTRUMENTS</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By John Robinson</span></p>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Curator of the Marine Room, Peabody Museum, Salem, Mass.</i></p>
+
+<p><span class="dropcap">W</span>HAT sort of instruments did
+the Colonial ship-masters carry?
+What did they have on
+the <i>Mayflower</i>? 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?</p>
+
+<p>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
+<i>Mindoro</i>, 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.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_008.jpg" width="400" height="565" alt="SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH ASTROLABE" />
+<p class="center f08">SIXTEENTH CENTURY SPANISH ASTROLABE<br />
+Full size. From Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.</p></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 400px;">
+<img src="images/i_009.jpg" width="400" height="403" alt="UNIVERSAL RING-DIAL" />
+<p class="center f08">UNIVERSAL RING-DIAL<br />
+Diameter 3-1/2 inches. Owned by Mr. Parker Kemble.</p></div>
+
+<p>No one knows exactly what instruments
+Columbus took with him on his
+voyage in 1492. He undoubtedly had
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>
+junction of the rods indicated the sun’s
+altitude and from this the latitude was
+obtained.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/i_012.jpg" width="250" height="339" alt="SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING A CROSS-STAFF" />
+<p class="center f08">SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING A CROSS-STAFF<br />
+From Seller’s “Practical Navigation,” London, 1676</p></div>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/i_013.jpg" width="250" height="329" alt="SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING DAVIS’ QUADRANT" />
+<p class="center f08">SEVENTEENTH CENTURY MARINER USING DAVIS’ QUADRANT<br />
+From Seller’s “Practical Navigation,” London, 1676</p></div>
+
+<p>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
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>
+a great advance over previous devices
+to obtain time and latitude.<br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px; border-style:solid;
+border-width:2px;">
+<img src="images/p_009.jpg" width="500" height="702" alt="PAGE FROM “PRACTICAL NAVIGATION" />
+</div>
+<p class="center f08">PAGE FROM “PRACTICAL NAVIGATION,”<br />
+BY JOHN SELLERS, LONDON, 1676<br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/i_015.jpg" width="250" height="438" alt="DAVIS QUADRANT" />
+<p class="center f08">DAVIS QUADRANT</p>
+<p class="center f08">“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.</p></div>
+
+<p>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 <i>Mayflower</i>
+carried a Davis quadrant and
+quite likely an astrolabe, and of course,
+a compass, for the compass had been
+in use for two centuries.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/i_018.jpg" width="250" height="360" alt="NOCTURNAL" />
+<p class="center f08">NOCTURNAL</p>
+<p class="center f08">“Nath’ll Viall 1724.” Boxwood, arm seven inches
+from centre to tip. In Peabody Museum, Salem.</p></div>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_019.jpg" width="500" height="546" alt="HADLEY QUADRANTS (OCTANTS)" />
+<p class="center f08">HADLEY QUADRANTS (OCTANTS) IN PEABODY MUSEUM, SALEM</p>
+
+<table summary="QUADRANTS"><tr>
+<td class="tdl padr1 f08" style="width: 50%">1. “Made by John Dupee 1755 for Patrick
+Montgomerie.” All wood, ebony, arm 22 inches
+long.</td>
+<td class="tdl f08" style="width: 50%">2. “Made by Ino. Gilbert on Tower Hill
+London for Hector Orr Augt. 6, 1768.” Ebony,
+arm 20 inches long.</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="tdc padl5 padr5 f08" style="width: 50%" colspan="2"><p>3. “Norie &amp; Co. London.” Ebony and brass, <i>ca.</i> 1840. Arm 11-3/4 inches,
+telescopic eyepieces, used by Capt. John Hodges.</p></td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="tdl padr1 f08" style="width: 50%">4. “Spencer Browning and Rust London.”
+Ebony frame, brass arm 17 inches, ivory scale,
+pencil inserted in cross piece, <i>ca.</i> 1800, used by
+Capt. Henry King.</td>
+<td class="tdl vertt f08" style="width: 50%">5. “J: Urings London.” All brass, arm 20
+inches, back sight broken off, <i>ca.</i> 1780, rare.</td></tr></table></div>
+
+<p>To obtain the ship’s latitude with
+comparatively good results was an
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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 shipboard
+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 <i>Mayflower</i>,
+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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;">
+<img src="images/i_022.jpg" width="500" height="529" alt="SEXTANTS IN PEABODY MUSEUM, SALEM" />
+<p class="center f08">SEXTANTS IN PEABODY MUSEUM, SALEM</p>
+
+<table summary="SEXTANTS"><tr>
+<td class="tdl f08 padr1" style="width: 50%">1. “Bradford London.” Brass frame and silver
+scale arm 14 inches long, <i>ca.</i> 1815, used by Capt.
+George Bailey before 1840.</td>
+<td class="tdl f08 vertt" style="width: 50%">2. “L. Bleuler, London.” Ebony frame, ivory
+scale, brass arm 14 inches long, <i>ca.</i> 1820, came from
+Plymouth, Mass.</td>
+</tr><tr>
+<td class="tdc f08 padr5 padl5" colspan="2"><p>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.</p></td></tr></table></div>
+
+<p>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
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>
+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.</p>
+
+<p class="tb">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 <i>Cleopatra’s Barge</i>
+during the voyage to the Mediterranean
+in 1817.</p>
+
+<p class="tb">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 <i>Mayflower</i>
+sailed.</p>
+
+<p class="tb">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
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span>
+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.”</p>
+
+<p>In a very detailed inventory made
+in Salem before a notary publick on
+Nov. 4, 1702, of the equipment of the
+ship <i>Province Galley</i>, 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.”</p>
+
+<p>The <i>Boston News-Letter</i>, 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.</p>
+
+<p>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.</p>
+
+<p>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 <i>Hannah</i>, 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
+<i>Hannah</i>, 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 Atlan<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>tic
+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.”</p>
+
+<p class="tb">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.</p>
+
+<p class="tb">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.</p>
+
+<p>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.<br /><br /></p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 250px;">
+<img src="images/i_028.jpg" width="250" height="162" alt="SCHOONER BALTICK, CAPT. EDWARD ALLEN" /></div>
+<p class="center f08">SCHOONER BALTICK, CAPT. EDWARD ALLEN<br />
+Coming out of St. Eustatia, Nov. 16, 1765</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44206 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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