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The Instruments of Navigation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 1981

Charles H. Cotter
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Abstract

‘A labourer works with his hands.

A craftsman works with his hands and his head.

An artist works with his hands, his head and his heart.’

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , May 1981, pp. 280 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1981

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References

NOTES AND REFERENCES

1 Plato, , Philebus (adapted from The Dialogues of Plato, translated into English by B. Jovvett (Oxford, 1953)Google Scholar.

2 Herodotus, (c. 450 B.C.). The Histories, edited by Komroff, H. (1928) from a translation by G. Rawlinson (New York)Google Scholar.

3 The traditional marks on the lead-line, of cord, leather, linen, serge and bunting, were to enable the leadsman to distinguish them not only by sight but also during nighttime by touch (using fingers; or, in frosty weather, the tongue).

4 Cotter, C. H., (1980). Coastal views in the development of the nautical chart. Hydrographic Journal, 17, 7Google Scholar. See also Cotter, C. H., (1980). A brief history of sailing directions. This Journal, 33, 418Google Scholar.

5 This chart takes its name from having been purchased in 1819 by the Bíbliothèque Imperiale from a Pisan family. It is now preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

6 See Cortesão, A., (1969). History of Portuguese Cartography, vol. 1. CoimbraGoogle Scholar.

7 Nordenskiold, A. E., (1897). Periplus: An Essay on the Early History of Charts and Sailing Directions. StockholmGoogle Scholar.

8 Taylor, E. G. R., (1948). The navigator in antiquity. This Journal, 1, 103Google Scholar.

9 Butcher, S. H. and Lang, A., (The Odyssey done into English prose, 1941.) The Complete Works of Homer. New YorkGoogle Scholar.

10 Peregrinus, P., (1558). De Magnete: Seu Rota perpetui mows…. AugsburgGoogle Scholar.

11 An annotated facsimile of these sailing directions, together with that of the first printed English rutter is given in Waters, D. W., The Kutters of the Sea (New Haven and London, 1967)Google Scholar.

12 Bourne, W., (1574). A Regiment for the Sea. LondonGoogle Scholar.

13 The history of John Harrison and his marine timekeepers is covered in Gould, R. T., The Marine Chronometer (London, 1923)Google Scholar.

14 See Cotter, C. H., (1970). A brief history of the nautical logs to A.D. 1800. This Journal, 23, 187Google Scholar.

15 Gunter, R. T., (1923). Early Science in Oxford, vols. 1 and 5. LondonGoogle Scholar.

16 Quoted by Taylor, E. G. R. in The Mathematical Practitioners of Hanoverian England: 171–1840 (London, 1966)Google Scholar.

17 For a brief history of altitude-measuring instruments see Cotter, C. H., A History of Nautical Astronomy (London and New York, 1968)Google Scholar. For a description of the use of a sextant and the adjustment of its errors, see Cotter, C. H., The Elements of Navigation and Nautical Astronomy (Glasgow, 1977)Google Scholar. For an outline of the history of the sextant, see Cotter, C. H., ‘The mariner's sextant and the Royal Society’, Notes and Records of the Royal Society, 33, no. 1, August 1978CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

18 Michel, H., (1966). Scientific Instruments in Art and History, trans. R. E. W. Maddison and F. R. Maddison (London)Google Scholar.

19 Sarton, G., (1956). The History of Science and the New Humanism New YorkGoogle Scholar.