Although in the popular view the ‘quest for longitude’ was mainly a British affair, it was in reality an effort by several European nations – especially if they already possessed, or were striving for, overseas colonies to extend their empires. To explore this multinational endeavour and its interactions is the aim of this book presenting a wide range of approaches to this general theme. It thereby challenges the claim of a ‘splendid isolation’ in science that has recently been forwarded by a number of British historians. The editors first describe the context of the following contributions, outlining the solutions proposed since the beginnings of the sixteenth century. Their interest is focused on the international and interpersonal aspects of the longitude problem; this is explained in a precise introduction which then locates the individual contributions within the framework of the four parts of the book.

The first part, ‘National enterprises’, assembles texts that focus on the developments in other countries parallel to the work in England. Juan Pimentel outlines the Spanish story up until the beginning of the nineteenth century. The attempts to fix positions of the territorial claims according to the papal decrees naturally were only successful after the necessary institutions had been created. This was the task of young navy officers who were sent on a geodetic expedition to Peru and later abroad to study methods and instruments of (nautical) astronomy. The result was the founding of the Reál Observatorio de Cadiz with the intention of establishing a southern meridian through observations and publications. Sadly the Napoleonic wars and the following Restoration led to a decline of the Cadiz observatory and to the brightest nautical scientists leaving the country. The Dutch story is recounted by Karel Davids, who argues that the Dutch Longitude Committee was the main agent of introducing the longitude method in navigational practice in the Netherlands. Although the committee was originally created in and for Amsterdam, it quickly took on national importance in diffusing existing knowledge and having it put into practice. This is mirrored in the issuance of specific regulations for ships’ masters and mates about the use of lunar distances as early as 1788, lifting the level of acquaintance with the longitude methods quite high by 1850. Guy Boistel's chapter examines the efforts to find a solution to the problem undertaken in France by several eminent scientists often hindered by rivalries and controversies between individuals and institutions like the Académie des sciences, the Académie de marine and the ministry. Boistel does not stick to the French story, though, but aims at the relationship with British efforts: he suggests that Maskelyne took the idea of the Nautical Almanac from Lacaille. The proof for his claim, he admits, though, still ‘has to be fully explored’ (p. 60). As a complement to Boistel's article, Martina Schiavon outlines the history of the Bureau des longitudes. She relates its creation as a response to the naval superiority of Britain. Based on the minutes of the meetings of the bureau, which will soon be digitized, Schiavon proposes a new study of its history to discover the role it played with its expertise in scientific and technical matters, and in the organization and development of theoretical and practical questions relating to astronomy, earth sciences and navigation.

Part II deals with ‘Longitude in transnational contexts’, thus focusing on the interaction between the different actors mentioned in the introductory essay. An example of a very personal approach to the international exchange of information is related in Jacob Orrje's article on the stay in London of Bengt Ferner, astronomer at the observatory of Uppsala. Ferner's travelogue, which is kept in the National Library of Sweden, shows the ways in which Ferner sought information about the latest developments in astronomy, instrument-making and naval matters. Simon Werrets's article deals with the interchange between Britain and Russia since Peter the Great hired Henry Farquharson to head his new school of navigation in 1701. When Catherine II started to reform the Russian Navy she again hired British officers for the task. In addition, young Russian naval officers were sent to serve for some years in the Royal Navy, among them Adam Johann von Krusenstern, who led the first Russian circumnavigation. As a result of the voyages of exploration of the early nineteenth century the Russian Navy relied heavily on British instruments, which in turn helped to test them under severe conditions. In the last contribution in this section, Michael Kershaw highlights the fact that all longitude measurements are connected to positions on dry land; in connecting positions of ports and prominent capes by geodesy to the exact measurements by astronomical means in observatories, the question of units of measurement, of metrology, arises. Kershaw tells the tale of how the different measures in Britain and France were made compatible and how coherence across the Channel had been achieved.

Naturally the longitude methods were put to the test in sea voyages. This is the theme of Part III, ‘Voyages as test sites’. In France in the early eighteenth century the solution of the longitude problem was attacked by such eminent clockmakers as Sully, Berthoud and Le Roy. Danielle Fauque tells how their clocks were put to the test in a series of four voyages between 1767 and 1772. The chronometers of Le Roy and Berthoud were only tested simultaneously on the voyage of the Flore. On this voyage the feasibility of the lunar-distance method was also tested and found useful. Summing up, Fauque states that these voyages mark the turn from traditional to scientific navigation. John Gascoigne argues in his complementary article that the juxtaposition of astronomical versus timekeeper methods is historically ill-founded; the experience of these voyages rather shows that the two methods complemented each other. He illustrates this with the expeditions starting under the Ancien Régime by Bougainville and LaPérouse and another series of expeditions to the Pacific after the restoration of the monarchy; they all made use of a combination of chronometric and astronomical position finding which only gave way toward the middle of the century to a greater reliance on chronometers.

Part IV deals with ‘The practice of navigation’. Jane Wess challenges the notion presented by earlier writers that navigation took a scientific turn after the introduction of the lunar-distance method and the appearance of the Nautical Almanac. According to her the golden age of the lunar-distance method did not start until the nineteenth century. She illustrates this by looking at nautical textbooks of the period and a sample of ships’ logs. This approach – looking at the actual practice on board by reviewing the documentation in the logs – certainly gives better insight than looking at textbooks. That work still has to be done for English ships as her contribution only relates isolated observations on a number of Royal Navy and East India Company ships. In the final chapter David Miller takes up the questions raised by Jane Wess: if the history of navigation and especially of the longitude problem cannot be viewed simply from the vantage point of the development of instruments and methods as shown by textbooks and scientific exchanges, then what can be said about the actual practice of navigation and how it adapted to the new means of position finding. Miller retraces this development by regarding the experience of the East India Company during the 1770–1840 period, illustrating his point by looking at logbooks which show that longitude observations (of whatever kind) were mostly taken not in the open sea but at crucial points in a voyage – which will not surprise anyone who ever navigated a ship or boat. Overall he concludes that navigation ‘employed techniques that were practicable and that sufficed rather than those that were ideal from a theoretical, hydrographic and administrative viewpoint’ (p. 241).

The individual articles are furnished with annotations that contain new information even for someone who is quite versed in the history of navigation. There is also an eleven-page index. To sum it up, this is not ‘a fascinating alternative history of longitude’ as pronounced on the back cover of the book; this is the real story presented by scholars who have dealt with their subject in depth. The editors must be thanked for collecting such fascinating contributions about the real workings of nautical science and practice.