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Jolly Roger · 23-06-2009, 19:47

I have just finished reading—in four days—a superb book which I recommend to everyone who goes down to the sea in ships. It is LONGITUDE: The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of this time, by Dava Sobel, with a foreword by non other than Neil Armstrong.
It is the story of course of John Harrison, who every sailor knows invented the first shipboard clock, enabling navigators to determine their longitude at sea, which eventually became the Chronometer, and prior to the satellite navigation system, one was necessary for ocean voyages. You might think this would be a tedious, complicated book, but it is not at all, and Mrs Sobel explains ocean navigation, before and after Harrison, with an ease and clarity which anyone can understand.

I think it will be particularly interesting to those who have taken up sailing after the 1980’s and therefore take Satnav for granted, and probably don’t know what the early navigators, (like me), had to learn, to make our way over oceans.
I read the book on my Kindle, but it is available in paperback from Amazon.com, and a neat addition to any ships library.

23-06-2009, 19:47	#1
Jolly Roger Registered User Join Date: Oct 2006 Posts: 200	Longitude - A Great Book! I have just finished reading—in four days—a superb book which I recommend to everyone who goes down to the sea in ships. It is LONGITUDE: The true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of this time, by Dava Sobel, with a foreword by non other than Neil Armstrong. It is the story of course of John Harrison, who every sailor knows invented the first shipboard clock, enabling navigators to determine their longitude at sea, which eventually became the Chronometer, and prior to the satellite navigation system, one was necessary for ocean voyages. You might think this would be a tedious, complicated book, but it is not at all, and Mrs Sobel explains ocean navigation, before and after Harrison, with an ease and clarity which anyone can understand. I think it will be particularly interesting to those who have taken up sailing after the 1980’s and therefore take Satnav for granted, and probably don’t know what the early navigators, (like me), had to learn, to make our way over oceans. I read the book on my Kindle, but it is available in paperback from Amazon.com, and a neat addition to any ships library.