Guest Post by Willis Eschenbach
I’m sure many people know this, but a “great circle” is a circle that goes clear around the entire globe, and whose center is at the center of the globe. A “meridian”, on the other hand, is a great circle that passes through the poles. Lines of longitude are meridians, for example, while the Equator is a great circle. And the “Prime Meridian” is the line of longitude that goes through both poles .. and right through the Greenwich Observatory.
On the other side of the planet from where I am now, the Prime Meridian is called the “International Date Line”. Inter alia, it runs through the island of Taveuni. And I’ve stood there in Taveuni astride the Date Line, with one foot in yesterday and one foot in today.
So it was with great satisfaction that I was able to do the same on this half of the planet. The ladies went to Harrods, and as a good seaman should, I went instead to the Greenwich Observatory, where the measuring of time zones started. Here’s the “evidinks”, as Popeye would say:
The Observatory is a fascinating place for a seaman like myself, filled with the history of how man learned to navigate the globe. It’s on one of the highest spots around London, at no less than 153 feet above sea level. Here’s a panorama of about 120° of the view, Millennium Dome on the right, downtown on the left, from the top of the hill, Greenwich Park in the foreground. Click on it (or any of the other pictures) to get the larger version:
One of the more amazing displays at the Observatory was of the four marine chronometers built by one of my personal heroes, John Harrison. He’s my hero for a couple of reasons. First, because like me he was self-educated, although to a greater degree. Second, because over thirty years of patient experimentation he invented the first successful marine chronometer accurate enough to determine where you are on the planet. Each of his four designs represented years and years of work, each contained a host of new ideas, until finally it all came right. There’re photos of his chronometers here.
Now, I sailed the ocean before GPS, and I’m a reasonable good celestial navigator. The theory of celestial navigation is simple. Let’s use sunrise as an example. If you know the exact time the sun rises where you happen to be, then you know which line of longitude you are on. Easy as that (with the usual caveats, refraction, etc.) … but only if you know exactly, to the second, what time it is. And that was why lots of seamen died before John Harrison invented his chronometer … they didn’t know what time it was, so they didn’t know where they were.
Now, of course, I didn’t have any expensive marine chronometer when I sailed, few people did. But that didn’t matter, because the BBC broadcasts time signals, in the form of six beeps, every hour on the hour. So all I had to do was compare my cheap watch to the radio just before I took my sextant sights. Then when I took the sights, I marked the time from my watch. When I went to work out the sights, I corrected my watch time based on the BBC’s accurate time.
Having spent many and many a morning and evening in the middle of some ocean or other, waiting for the boop-boop-boop-boop-boop-beeeep of the BBC’s time signal, it was a great satisfaction to me to see the actual clock which had been used to produce that very time signal. Indeed. the entire trip through the observatory was in the nature of my homage to the brilliant Englishmen who had done so much to make my life’s oceanic travels possible. For example, back in the days before radio they needed to be able to pass an accurate time signal to anyone in the Thames. To do that, they mounted a big red ball that can slide up and down a pole, viz:
A few minutes before 1:00 they raised the ball up to the top of the mast, and then at exactly 1:00 they dropped the ball … and all of the navigators on vessels up and down the Thames could set their chronometers to the exact second. Simple, and brilliant.
While I was in Greenwich, I also went to the Maritime Museum and the Cutty Sark. When I was a kid living on a cattle ranch, I dreamed of the ocean, and among other things, I put together a model of the Cutty Sark, with all of the spars and rigging and all. So it was almost a shock to see the real ship … it was a bit larger than I remembered it.
In the Maritime Museum, there is the most steampunk real actual vessel I ever saw, from memory called the “Miss England III”. It held the water speed record back a while ago. It’s made of riveted aluminum, and looks deliciously Victorian despite being built (again from memory) in the thirties.
Click on the picture, and enjoy the detail … it just needs a couple of very British maniacs with leather-rimmed goggles and it’s good to go.
So that was yesterday. Today was another lovely warm, even hot day. We went first to the Natural History Museum. It was good, but I wouldn’t rate it as great.
However, we went on from there to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and that museum was absolutely stupendous. Here’s the chandelier in the entry, how could you not like a museum with such an outrageous juxtaposition of the old and new? …
The building itself is astonishing, with immense high ceilings carried on steel arches down into stonework walls with delicate fretwork. And the contents, my goodness, the contents. The basic news is that they have everything from everywhere, and then some, and then a few dozen more. And then a couple more cases full, with (I’m sure) more in the basement. And there were surprises around every corner. For example, I’ve often wondered why it took so long for people to put wheels on suitcases … when I was a kid, hardly any suitcases had wheels. But to my surprise, I found out that it wasn’t a new idea at all …
So as a place to go on my (sadly) last day in London, the V&A Museum was simply superb. On the way out, I asked the guard if Vickie and Al ever came around to visit their most awesome museum, because I was hoping to thank them for their work. He coldly informed me that they were late. “How late?” I asked. He said Al had been late since about 1860, and she’d been late since 1901 … I figured if they were that late it wasn’t likely they’d show up today, so we left and went back to the flat. Can’t have everything in this life, I guess, and at least now the internet is back on in the flat.
Tomorrow we’re off to see Stonehenge et al., on Saturday we’ll be in Bath, and from there … who knows?
My thanks to all for their suggestions and good wishes. As mentioned, my phone is 074 4838 1774. I can’t say I’ll answer all the texts, but they are read and appreciated whether answered or not. We have no reservations north of Bath, so advice on (inexpensive) places to stay is always welcome. The dang money here seems to be made out of ice cream or something, a pound melts away awful fast …
Regards,
w.
Fun article, Willis. I too have straddled that line on Taveuni (Garden Island of Fiji) while one of the locals thrilled us with a tale of Fijians whipping (and then, maybe, cooking) an invading flotilla of Tongans. Beautiful place then, I took my family there on a vacation. One of the attractions of the “resort” we stayed in was horseback riding, which my wife was interested in for our daughter. On the first day I called at the desk and asked about riding. Well, the place had just changed hands, the horses were nowhere to be found (dinner?), and so, onward to other things, like a 100-foot tropical waterfall and pool of incredibly clear cold water that one could imagine Dorothy Lamour swimming in; a little island just off shore with one of the most incredible reefs I’ve ever seen; the tiny little Indian man with a foot-pump Singer sewing machine who hemmed our new sulus (sarongs), and on and on. The smell of a coffee plantation – wonderful. Taveuni is a place to visit.
Louis says:
September 5, 2013 at 1:12 pm
Maybe Willis could find out if there really is a hamlet named “Ugley” in Essex and one named “Nasty” in Hertfordshire. There’s a rumor that the Ugley Women’s Institute changed its name to the Women’s Institute of Ugley to avoid the jokes. So I’m curious about what the women’s institute in Nasty is named.
Ugley is a decent sized place, maybe 1,000 people. I cycled to Ugley as a boy in the 60s, and there was indeed a sign on the village hall – Ugley Women’s Institute.
Nasty is a very small place, only about 10 houses from memory. Too small to have a Women’s Institute.
The book by Dava Sobel Longitude IS outstanding; so are her other works; worth checking out. Cheers from sunny and warm Sydney
Well at least I can say that I stood where you stood.
World’s End, west of Birmingham, also near Newbury.
Seems have been a common place name at one time. There was a Worlds End marked on old maps a mile from where I grew up in Essex.
This may be an instance where wikipedia is wrong. It describes the origin as, a whimsical name for an out of the way place. While I am sure these places were called Wold’s End, the edge of the wood, or where a path ended at the edge of a wood (the one near me was indeed at the edge of a large wood). And when the map makers came along speaking standard english of the time asked the illiterate locals the name of the place, the pronunciation of Wold sounded like ‘World’ to them and so it was written down.
Fiji dateline mythbusters please help:
I had the great pleasure of being there twice and heard a story about the dateline. Given that the English Methodist culture was in force there, sporting events and shops being open was a no no on Sundays. I did, however, hear a story of an enterprising shopkeeper who had a long shop straddling the dateline, with a door at each end. You can guess the rest. Is it true though, or an “urban” legend ?
PS Willis, when you’re driving through Wiltshire, depending on how you go to Stonehenge, if you do take the A4 towards Silbury Hill and Avebury, you will go through Marlborough, which has the widest main street of any town in England, and as you zig zag out of there, you will pass Marlborough College which, almost unbelievably, has a small 4,400-year old Silbury Hill on its grounds. A little known fact.
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2011/may/31/malborough-mound-wiltshire-silbury-neolithic
(I hope you’re not banned from the Guardian website, ha ha ha)
Silbury Hill itself will make you reach for your camera, as will Avebury, and West Kennet Long Barrow is right on that road too. Amazing stuff from warmer times. More satisfying than Stonehenge and, please do me a favor if you go there. Look and see if you observe any California poppies growing around any of the stones. I may have to consult with my lawyer before completing that story, heh heh heh.
Mr. Tisdale
Mr. Eschenbach
I have my mother’s slide rule, from her days at NACA at Langley, Hampton, Virginia, as a part of their “computer system”…. I’m sorry there is no sextant in my family archive and memorabilia. Many many many thanks, Willis and Bob, for the education and enlightenment over the last ten years. Willis, I am following you across Britain with joy and longing…please slow down and enjoy yourself for all of us!
Patrick
So “Cutty Sark” isn’t just a cheap brand of hooch with a crude pic of a ship on the label? Looked as authentic as the pic of Captain Morgan on his spiced rum.
From Willis Eschenbach on September 5, 2013 at 1:26 pm:
‘I’ve never seen (item) at see’? Willis, you may just be too adept a world traveler, as you pick up colloquial local expressions far too easy. Is this like “I never heard a barking dog at listen that night”? Sure threw me first time I came across it. But they had to be listening before they could hear or not hear that dog, as you had to be “at see” (variation of “on the lookout”) to see or not see the whale.
Please purge yourself of these quaint expressions when you return to “the colonies”. For when the time arises to break out the pitchforks and torches, it will be acceptable to bring a torch that burns propane, but not one using energy-efficient LEDs instead of an incandescent bulb, unless it emits a focused coherent beam that can ignite worthless sheepskins and incinerate fraudulent papers.
Glad to know you’re having fun, and with your family to boot.
[Reply: this somewhat dense moderator changed ‘see’ to ‘sea’, not understanding why it was written like that. Should have known that Willis doesn’t make misteakes like that… ~mod.]
Annie says: “Louis @ur momisugly 2:21 pm: You’ve missed out Nether Wallop, Middle Wallop and Over Wallop! These amuse my Aussie friends, until I point out that they run to names like Wagga Wagga and Yallingup….Oh, and Woy Woy.”
But how do those compare with Walla Walla and Puyallup (in Washington)? Or WaaWaa (waʻawaʻa) in Hawaii?
“””””…..mogamboguru says:
September 5, 2013 at 2:52 pm
Only the British could build the fastest twin-engined bomber in the world from wood – DH 98 Mosquito – while building a speedy ship from Aluminum – Miss Britain III – and succeed, while everybody else in the world at that time was absolutely certain it had to be done vice versa……”””””
Well don’t forget the hybrid wood and aluminum (wing bottom) glue laminated together twin engine DH103 Hornet; the fastest twin-engine (piston) fighter in the world. Also the only one with mirror image counter rotating Rolls Royce Merlin Engines (130, & 131).
I talked with a retired US Navy pilot, who actually tested out the De Havilland Sea Hornet, for use with the US Navy. He told me it was the sweetest flying twin engine aero-plane he has ever flown.
Willis,
You’ve generated quite a bit of jealousy from some of us stuck a home while you take in the wonderful sites and historical marvels. Sounds fascinating and I hope to visit the same sites someday. Thanks for the excellent report.
—–
I second Evan’s recommendation of Dava Sobel’s book, “Longitude.” Well worth the read.
Very pleased to see you are enjoying it here in the UK.
You can also straddle the Greenwich meridian in Louth, Lincolnshire (outside a bakers shop in the centre of town) and Cleethorpes, North East Lincolnshire (on the promenade/seafront path as you walk past the boating lake to Humberstone). The last land fall, before it disappears into the sea on its way to the pole, is on the coast in East Yorkshire although I have never found it marked.
My wife and I claimed a world record, from the Guinness Book Of Records, when, in 2001, it took us 46 hours and 10 minutes from straddling the Greenwich Meridian at Cleethorpes to straddling the Equator in Quito, Ecuador (careful here the real equator is 400 yards away from the official visitor park in a native village). Our claim was turned down because “…we don’t have a section for this and do not intend starting one”.
Other places to visit in the North; Harewood house, near Leeds and why not take a trip on the Seattle-Carlisle railway. Can back up recommendation of Premier Inns; we always use them when wandering around the UK.
Enjoy the rest of your holiday here.
Bob Tisdale says:
September 5, 2013 at 4:43 pm
I still have two, not sure why. One is my main, lovely, full-sized instrument that’s been across the Pacific with me. The other is a tiny “lifeboat sextant”, a cylinder about 3″ x 3″. Probably should go to a museum …
I do miss my 6″ circular slide rule, though, a K&E.
w.
As an “ancient mariner” surely you should visit Staithes where the youthful James Cook first saw the sea and Whitby where he learned his seafaring skills. Both are on North Yorkshire’s coast and I recommend Hadley’s ( on the edge of the old town) for fish and chips.
Just a small point of correction. The time ball at Greenwich drops at 12:00 GMT every day of the year. You saw it drop at 1pm because the UK is currently running its clocks on British Summer Time (BST) which is GMT+1.
Greenwich is a wonderful place. Interesting bit of trivia – a captain who captured exactly the noon GMT signal was aid to be “on the ball”.
Tom Swift
Try that in Canada, and in December the sun would set before noon in Newfoundland, and rise after noon in Vancouver. Dumb idea.
Of course John Harrison was also screwed by petty government bureaucrats. They never paid him the vast prize money (£20,000 I seem to recall; in any case a fortune in the time) promised for a solution to the problem of longitude. Nothing changes, does it?
I love Greenwich. As a Royal Naval officer I was fortunate enough to stay at the college, which was at the time a training establishment for RN engineers (and unbeknownst to me and most of Britain had a fully functioning nuclear reactor, to train engineers going to the submarine fleet!). This is the beautiful building just before the river in your photo. It is amazing inside too.
Naval personnel also have free entry tot he National Maritime Museum, which is excellent. It would be better if they acknowledged the role of British naval forces in fighting slavery as well as her role in the slave trade, but you can expect all museums to have that sort of bias.
P.S. Correction to my last, I should have said they never paid the whole money. They reluctantly and belatedly paid some of the prize to Harrison, but nowhere near all of it.
Sorry you found the Natural History Museum a bore. I love the earth sciences side which is attached but separate. The Science Museum is very good and worth a visit, it is next door to the Natural History(Earth Sciences) Museum in Exhibition Road. Better than the V&A.
the BBC still do the time signal but on the DBS transmissions they are 1-2 seconds late. Plays hell with accurate astro navigation in the air as I used to do using stars. By comparison the noon fix is easy.
As a note all meridians pass through both poles not just the prime.
If, as reccommended in a post above, you get to see York Minster, and, if you’re interested in clocks, take a peek at it’s astronomical clock designed by Dr Atkinson in 1944 (chief assistant at the Royal Observatory) – a fantastic piece of horological craftsmanship (Google: York Minster Astronomical Clock.).
I have been giving a bit of thought to a souvenir of England which you might like to obtain.
One possibility might be a proper umbrella. These two URLs describe a proper English ‘gamp’, and indicate where you might get one.
http://www.oncewasengland.com/2011/05/16/crafty-old-fox/
http://blog.quintinlake.com/2010/10/24/foxs-umbrella-shop-elegant-1930s-modernism-at-118-london-wall/
Thank you Willis for such fascinating descriptions of your travels in England.
It is a privilege to accompany you, and your ladies, to places which us Brits we may be familiar with and to then read about them described through the eyes of such a perceptive visitor.
Wheels on suitcases….
Louis says:
September 5, 2013 at 2:21 pm
How about Sodom – down the road from me in N.Wales.
Here’s the “evidinks”, as Popeye would say:
Well, blows me down, ya barnacle-bitten landlubber. A-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga.