of Nautical Astronomy: 329 
able information in those to whom the business of navigation is 
intrusted. But he who undertakes. the management of a ship, 
without having qualified himself in the best possible manner for 
the proper discharge of his duty, subjects the lives of his crew 
and the property of his employers to an additzonal risk, of which 
they may consider it providential if they feel not the consequences. 
Another advantage arising from the mariner’s being able to 
determine his dongitude by observation, as well as his latitude, is, 
that, besides his being enabled to avoid dangers to which he 
might otherwise be exposed, and to navigate his vessel with greater 
confidence and comfort to himself, he will generally reach his 
port by a shorter route than a seaman of more primitive attain- 
ments. A person assured of his situation both in latitude and 
longitude will, if circumstances permit him, steer directly for the 
place at which he wishes to be; but he whose longitude depends 
solely on his sea reckoning must first, and at a wary distance from 
his port, reach the latitude in which it lies. Thus, besides the 
risk arising from the uncertainty of the reckoning, the voyage is 
unavoidably prolonged. 
Among the causes which have prevented the seamen of the 
North of England from benefiting, generally, by the advantages 
which modern science has conferred on navigation, the chief one 
"unquestionably is the nature of the employment in which by far 
the greater part of them are bred. In that great nursery of able 
seamen, the coal trade, a minute local knowledge of the coast, and 
dexterity in the management of a ship, comprehend almost the 
whole of the nautical information that is required, and ordinary 
men are little inclined to concern themselves about attainments 
which their immediate wants do not force on their attention. 
When persons brought up in this employment are engaged in 
any other where higher attainments may be expected, they en- 
deavour to make up by watchfulness what they want in science. 
As uncertain they must be, their care is to err on the side of 
safety; and the danger is not trifling from which their skill in 
seamanship will not extricate them. 
Those who have laboured to introduce among such men a 
more general acquaintance with the modern improvements in 
nautical astronomy, have had to contend with that disinclination 
to change, and almost superstitious attachment to old methods, 
forms, and habits, for which seafaring men have always been re- 
markable. The success of their labours has been in some de- 
gree impeded also by the misguided efforts of some individuals, 
who have employed themselves in contriving and transforming 
certain empirical rules and methods for correcting the error of 
the reckoning in longitude, without any reference to observations 
made for that purpose; or as an adequate substitute for all such 
Vol. 58. No, 283, Nov, 1821. Tt observations. 
