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Article: Longitude Historic quest solved sailors' scariest problem
- Article from:
- The Boston Globe (Boston, MA)
- Article date:
- November 15, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 1993 The Boston Globe. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Navigators at sea "have one great imperfection yet in their arte,
and hitherto by no man supplyed, and that is the wante of exact rules
to knowe the longitude," Thomas Digges wrote in his 1576 treatise
"Errors in the Arte of Navigation."
That pressing problem became a national issue by 1707, when most
of a squadron of British naval ships commanded by Sir Cloudesley
Shovell, returning home from a voyage, were wrecked on the Scilly
Isles off England's southwest coast. Because they couldn't determine
their longitude, or how far east or west they were, the sailors
didn't know that the islands lay close ahead until it was too late,
and many lost their lives.
Parliament, sensing a crisis, passed ...