The Barefoot Navigator: Wayfinding with the Skills of the Ancients

402 Pages·2017·11.61 MB·English

by  Jack Lagan

CONTENTS
Conventions and Credits
Foreword to the New Edition
A Short Lexicon
A Barefoot Philosophy for the 21st Century
GPS: The Death of Navigation?
A Strategy for the Future
PART 1: THE REMARKABLE SKILLS OF THE ANCIENTS
The Pacific Islanders
Just Another Day in Paradise?
Tangata: The Gods of Navigation
Feelers of the Sea
The Chart in Captain William Bligh’s Head
Tupaia’s Chart
Strategies and Tactics
The Vikings
The Ring of Bears
The Norse Sagas as Cruising Guides
The Polar Stick
Sol-Skuggjáfjøl: The Sun-Shadow Board
The Uunartoq Compass
The Viking Sunstone
The Mediterranean: Pharaohs, Phoenicians and Greeks
Queen Hatshepsut’s Shopping Trip
The Thalassocracy of Phoenicia
King Necho II’s Big Adventure
Lateen Rigs and Wind Compasses
The Arabs
Ships of the Desert at Sea
The Rahmāni, the Kamal and the Akhdh al-Kawakib
The Chinese
Sampans and Junk History
Longitude Chinese-style
The South-Pointing Needle
Renaissance Navigation
Portolan Charts and Some Very Rum Lines
Dividing Circles: The Search for Accuracy
PART 2: PRACTICAL NO-TECH NAVIGATION
Which Heading?
Horizon Events
The Sun
Rising
Setting
The Trade Winds
The Movement of the Sea
The Waves
The Swell
Surface Currents
Tidal Currents
Catch a Rising Star: Barefoot Astronavigation
Star Trains: Stations and Schedules
Above the Horizon
The Hand of Kaho’s Apprentice: Measuring Angles
The Big Picture
Astronomical Mythography and Aids to Pattern Recognition
Looking North: Finding Polaris
Star Trains: The Merak Express
Looking South: Finding South Using Crux
Star Trains: The Canopus Commuter
Star Trains: The Scorpius Special
Looking East and West: Hunting with Orion
Orion’s Helpful Neighbours
The Latecomer to the Party: Spica
Stranger in the Dark: Fomalhaut
360 Degrees of Separation: Introducing the Pelorus
The Sidereal Compass
Where Am I, Roughly?
Latitude: A Belated Definition
Zenith Stars
Using Polaris to Estimate Latitude
Give Me a Little Latitude: A Navigation Strategy
Landfall
The Clouds
The Birds
Reflected and Refracted Swells
The Wind: Land and Sea Breezes
The Water
Aircraft
Ferries and Other Sea Traffic
Radio Masts
PART 3: DO-IT-YOURSELF LO-TECH NAVIGATION
Dead Reckoning
Improvising a Magnetic Compass
The Watch Compass
Calculating Speed: The Home-Brew Log Line
Calculating Speed: The Dutchman’s Log
The Traverse Board: Logging Your Dead Reckoning
The Pelorus: Non-Magnetic Steering Compasses
Steering: The Sun Compass
Steering: The Star Compass
Steering: The Superlorus
Latitude
Kamals and Polar Sticks
The Astrolabe, the Cross-staff and the Backstaff
Improvising Quadrants
Latitude Using the Sun at Noon
Latitude Using the Stars
Making a Sun-Shadow Board
Longitude
The Ubiquitous Quartz Watch
Using the Sun at Noon
Using a Compass
Longitude by Polar Stick
A Minimalist Longitude using Kochab
A Combined Declination/EoT Table
Latitude, Longitude and Lunar Distances
Plumbing the Depths
PART 4: SURVIVAL NAVIGATION
Be Prepared
The Grab Bag
Stranded Ashore?
Aft Word to Second Edition
Recommended Further Reading
Timeline of Navigation and Exploration
Appendices
Notes
Index
CONVENTIONS AND CREDITS
Distances: In general terms, distances are given in kilometres, except where a
distance is given in statute miles within a quotation. In those cases, a metric
equivalent is provided.
Navigation distances: When discussing navigation at sea, distances are given in
nautical miles (nm) for the simple reason that it is the only measure that derives
from the geometry of the Earth. One nautical mile = one-sixtieth of one degree
of latitude and is approximately 1.2 statute miles. A ‘knot’ is not a distance but a
speed: one nautical mile per hour. That’s the way it has to be.
Measurements: Measurements are in the metric system, although I may
occasionally slip in feet when giving the length overall of a boat.
Dates: Historical dates are quoted using the new convention. ‘AD’ is now ‘CE’
(Common Era) and ‘BC’ is ‘BCE’ (Before Common Era). Specific dates are
expressed as day-month-year, with the month spelled out to avoid confusion (eg,
‘11 July 2017’. I may occasionally refer to a date as ‘July 11’ when an entry is to
be found in a table and the month comes first.
Time: Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is now referred to as Universal Time (UT)
or Universal Time Corrected (UTC). But it is also sometimes referred to as
‘World Time’, and by the military as ‘Zulu Time’. I quite like the sound of
‘World Time’, but will use UTC and GMT in this book. Actual times are shown
as four digits, without punctuation and always using the 24-hour clock.
Maps: Unless otherwise sourced, the maps were produced using Map Maker Pro,
available from www.mapmaker.com.
Star charts: Images of the night sky were created using Patrick Chevalley’s
Cartes du Ciel software (available from www.ap-i.net/skychart) and Stellarium