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LONGCAMP.COM'S
NOVA ALBION ANNEX
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Introduction
to
DETERMINATION OF LATITUDE
BY FRANCIS DRAKE ON THE COAST OF CALIFORNIA IN
1579
  In
38. deg. 30. min. we fell with a conuenient and fit
harborough, and Iune 17. came to anchor therein: where we
continued till the 23. day of Iuly
following.
The
World Encompassed
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ahead to article.
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About 1595, Jodicus Hondius drew the Portus Novea
Albionis -- a plan of Drakes "convenient and fit
harborough" during a stay in London. A year later he
published it as a corner inset to his famous Broadside Map.
No place like this exists at Drake's reported anchorage at
38.deg 30.min.
About 1635, Robert Dudley drew The Map Particolara, and
included Porto di Nueva Albion at about
38° 19'
In 1790, Captain James Colnett sailed into, and charted,
what he called the Port Sir Francis Drake...38° 21'
123° 00'
 Brian
Kelleher wrote a book Drake's
Bay, Unravelling California's Great Maritime
Mystery. Brian
studied every detail of Drake's voyage of circumnavigation.
He did statistical analysis of all of Drake's determinations
of latitude recorded in The World Encompassed. He found
that, when taken on land, and from positions that can be
identified today on modern maps, that Drake's results were
+/- 11 minutes of latitude--quite a feat for the day. The
only site that lies within this +/- 11 minutes of latitude
of Drake's reported "38.deg 30.min" on the Pacific
Coast is Campbell Cove (N38° 19'-- W
123° 03') on Bodega Head (large map
above).
But Brian had never determined the source of Drake's
errors in his determinations. Was it error in sightings? Or,
were the instruments of the time incapable of doing better?
One day Brian asked me, "Bob, why don't you look at the
latitude problem." I did, and we were astonished at what we
found.
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There is a passage in the oeuvre of William
F. Buckley, Jr. in which he remarks that no writer
in the history of the world has ever successfully
made clear to the layman the principles of
celestial navigation. Then Buckley announces that
celestial navigation is dead simple, and that he
will pause in the development of his present
narrative to redress forever the failure of the
literary class to elucidate this abecedarian
technology. John Mc
Phee, Annuls of a Former World
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I am not a Drake
Scholar.
As you can probably guess from the topbar
and other contents of this web site, my main
interests lie elsewhere. But I have followed
the landing site debates for more than twenty years
with interest. So, when Brian suggested it, I
decided to look at just where a 16th century
determination of North "38. deg. 30. min." at about
longitude West 123° would have been.
What if we were to roll back the calendar to
1579, leave England and sail eight hours in
longitude into the next day, and go to these
very locations armed with period instrumentation,
period astronomical and geographical knowledge,
period published tables of solar declination, and
remake these observations ourselves from a
calculated virtual sun at meridian transit? Here is
what I found.
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To the best of my knowledge, in the
previous analysis of 16th Century
navigation regarding reported historic
positions, this has never been
attempted. It should have been.
Many thanks to Dr. Andrew T.
Young, Professor Emeritus at the
Astronomy Department of San Diego State
University who visited this website and
straightened out some of my terminology
and provided me with the rule for the
obliquity of the ecliptic.
And to Brian Kelleher for
leading me to the source material and
for his invaluable editorial
assistance.
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Another disputed 16C California landing site
location.
Did Pedro de Unamuno Really Land in Morro Bay
in 1587? Probably not, according to Michael
Baird. Here his examimation of the evidence.
The Hakluyt Society. Founded in 1846, the
Hakluyt Society seeks to advance knowledge and
education by the publication of scholarly editions
of primary records of voyages, travels and other
geographical material. The 1961 Hakluyt Society
publication of A Regiment For the Sea, by
William Bourne, (1574) has been indispensable in
this project.
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See also my news
page on my Frémont site for developements at
Campbell Cove!
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DETERMINATION
OF LATITUDE BY FRANCIS DRAKE ON THE COAST
OF CALIFORNIA IN 1579
