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The problem of finding position at sea...in the 16th century
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I happened upon an interesting book, Maps of The Ancient Sea Kings by Charles H.Hapgood.
The book discusses a chart made or compiled by Piri Reis in about 1513.  Though I'm no expert on the subject, the book does seem to require some faith as do books like "Chariots of the Gods".

Regardless, there's a good quote near the beginning of the book you might enjoy.  Navigators throughout history always get blamed for errors in position.

"A good description of the problem of finding position at sea is given by a 16th century writer quoted by Admiral Morison in his Admiral of the Ocean Sea:

"O how God in His omnipotence can have placed this subtle and so important art of navigation in wits so dull and hands so clumsy as those of these pilots! And to see them inquire, one of the other, 'how many degrees hath your honor found?' One says 'sixteen,' another 'a scant twenty' and another 'thirteen and a half.' Presently they ask, 'How doth your honor find himself with respect to the land?' One says, I find myself forty leagues from land,' another 'I say 150,' another says 'I find myself this morning 92 leagues away.' And be it three or three hundred nobody agrees with anybody else, or with the truth." 

Morison, Samuel E. Admiral of the Ocean Sea. Boston: Little, Brown, 1942 pages:321-322)

CelNav57
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