John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
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Navigational Exercise Book, Manuscript MS 92.5, John D. Rockefeller, Jr. Library, Colonial Williamsburg Foundation
Navigational exercise book consists of handwritten exercises to determine longitude and latitude between various ports with most originating in Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Exercises consist of examples with originating longitude and latitude, place of departure, destination, and conditions which might influence arrival. Answers consist of a plat diagramming the course, changes in longitude and latitude, distances sailed and other concerns. Also included are directional tables, or charts, and small, but detailed drawings of ships and ports on nearly every page. The types of exercises are divided into problems concerning plain sailing, traverse sailing, and mercator's sailing. The routes the exercises present consist mostly of trips between Cape Cod and the West Indies.
There are illustrations depicting twenty ships some of which are dated 1742. The ships are: Asp, Charming Molley, Dragon, Elizabeth, Endeavour, Fox, High Flyer, Katharine, Neptune, Prosperity, Ranger, Sea Flower, Sea Horse, Seven Brothers, Squirrel, Swallow, Three Batchelors, Urchin, Welcome and Wimble.