I have a ‘small’ passion for history, particularly old history books, and rare old 1st or 2nd editions. So, to sate this passion for history with little monies to travel overseas for research, I research by checking what is available via other historical societies, book clubs, book venues like libraries, and also the internet when the information can be proved positive. It’s amazing just how much you can learn by just doing the research. Latitude and Longitude didn’t mean a thing to me during my teenage years and I didn’t have the faintest idea what it was for a long time. However, as my interest in ancient and middle age history developed, particularly the history of the VOC and anything associated with it, I learnt how important longitude and latitude was to the old mariners. Longitude was discovered quite early, in fact before BC, and then picked up by Ptolemy the Greek in the 1st century AD. This became very helpful for the navigators of old. But latitude was not fully developed for another 17 centuries. There is a long and interesting history on this of minutes, seconds, and degrees etcetera. Here are a few interesting things I have just recently discovered. There is a very rare edition of a guide introducing Abraham Cornelis HAZEWINKEL’s (1772-1842) method of calculating Latitude, which was subsequently implemented as the standard method in the Dutch Marine and remained in use until the end of the 19th century. This method by Hazewinkel, a ship’s captain, who established a Dordrecht school for training sailors in 1817, was also invented simultaneously, but independently, by the Dutch Mathematician Rehuel LOBATTO (1797-1866), and is known as the Lobatto-Hazewinkel Method. Also, there is a very rare second edition of a Standard Practical Manual on the Art of Navigation, by the virtually unknown Klaas de VRIES, teacher of Mathematics in Amsterdam. It is dedicated to the famous Burgomaster and one of the Directors of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), Nicolaas WITSEN, and dated ‘Amsterdam 12 June 1706’. Not only is the book profusely illustrated but also includes letterpress tables of the tides, the time lag between the positions of the sun and the moon for the years 1707-1716, the declination of the sun, as well as 4 engraved plates of a compass rose, the Jakob’s staff and other navigational instruments, the ‘Platte Paskaarts’ and the ‘Wassende Graadige Paskaart’. The work concludes with seconds of the winds one can encounter on the journey from Holland to the Dutch East Indies: how to sail to the East Indies in autumn, during monsoons and much more. There is so much information on old history out there but you have to be prepared to research. Some translations/explanations: Jakob’s Staff is a cross staff used for navigation; Compass Rose is a figure on a compass; Platte Paskaart is a flat map and Wassende Graadige Paskaart is a waxy/glossy map. Henny Crijns-Coenen
Posted on: Thu, 20 Mar 2014 16:35:48 +0000
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