The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VII. Being the Third of the Third VoyageKing, James
History
The Three Voyages of Captain Cook Round the World. Vol. VII. Being the Third of the Third Voyage
King, James
Cook, James, 1728-1779 -- Travel; Explorers -- Great Britain -- Biography; Voyages around the world -- History -- 18th century
Having received orders the next day to go to Bolcheretsk, the
time-keeper was left in the care of Mr. Bayly, to compare it with his
watch and clock, in order to get its rate. On my return, I was told it
had gone for some days with tolerable regularity, losing only from
fifteen to seventeen seconds a-day, when it stopped a second time. It
was again opened, and the cause of its stopping appeared to be owing to
the man having put some part of the work badly together when he first
opened it. Being again adjusted, it was found to gain above a minute
a-day; and, in the attempt to alter the regulator and balance-spring, he
broke the latter. He afterward made a new spring; but the watch now went
so irregularly, that we made no farther use of it. The poor fellow was
not less chagrined than we were, at our bad success; which, however, I
am convinced was more owing to the miserable tools he was obliged to
work with, and the stiffness his hands had contracted from his ordinary
occupation, than to his want of skill.
For the satisfaction of those who may wish to have a general view of its
rate of going, I have added the following table.
The first and second columns contain the dates when, and the names of
the places where, its rate was observed. The third column contains the
daily error of its rate, so found from mean time. The fourth column has
the longitude of each place, according to the Greenwich rate; that is,
calculated on a supposition that the time-keeper had not varied its rate
from the time it left Greenwich. But as we had frequent opportunities of
ascertaining the variation of its daily error, or finding its new rate,
the fifth column has the longitude, according to its last rate,
calculated from the true longitude of the place last departed from. The
sixth is the true longitude of the place, deduced from astronomical
observations made by ourselves, and compared with those made by others,
whenever such could be obtained. The seventh column shows the difference
between the fourth column and the sixth in space; and the eighth the
same difference in time. The ninth shows the number of months and days
in which the error, thus determined, had been accumulating. The
difference between the fifth and sixth columns is found in the tenth,
and shows the error of the time-keeper, according to its rate last found
in space; and the eleventh, the same error in time. The twelfth contains
the time elapsed in sailing from the place where the rate was last
taken, to the place whose longitude is last determined. The thirteenth
and fourteenth contain the state of the air at the time of each
observation.
As persons, unaccustomed to calculations of this sort, may find some
difficulty in comprehending the nature of the table, the two following
instances will more clearly explain it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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