Nautical Science

La expedición de los hermanos Nodal al estrecho de Magallanes y Tierra de Fuego (1618-1619) se llevó a cabo en vísperas de la finalización de la Tregua de los Doce Años (1609-1621), entre la República de Holanda y la Monarquía Hispánica para verificar el nuevo paso interoceánico descubierto por la expedición holandesa comandada por Jacob Le Maire y Willem Schouten en 1616. Este artículo pretende realizar un nuevo análisis de esta expedición escasamente tratada por la historiografía para aproximarnos al significado que tuvo en el contexto político de aquel tiempo que gira en torno a una idea: el dominio de los mares. Esta idea se manifestó durante el reinado de Felipe III tanto en el plano material como en el plano ideológico y tuvo sus influjos en la organización de esta expedición marítima. Los logros náuticos y cartográficos de la misma demuestran la capacidad material y el potencial humano de la Monarquía Hispánica a inicios del siglo XVII. Su éxito también se debió a una cooperación ibérica, posible en aquel tiempo en el que las coronas de España y Portugal estaban unidas en un mismo destino.

http://www.usc.es/revistas/index.php/ohm/article/view/5048/6095

Abstract

The HMS St George was a second rate ship-of-the-line of the Royal Navy. She sank, together with the HMS Defence, in the North Sea off the Jutland coast in 1811, with nearly all of her crew lost the tragedy claimed 1400 lives. The ship was excavated during the 1980’s and a museum dedicated to the wreckage opened in 1993 in Thorsminde, Denmark. Several theses have been written in past years about artefacts from the HMS St George at the University of Southern Denmark. This thesis examines the collection of navigational instruments recovered from the wreck and reflects on the culture of navigation onboard the ship. It re-examines the history of the St George’s last voyage with regards to Gibbs’ theory on site formation processes.

Abstrakt

Det engelske orlogsskib HMS St George strandede i 1811 på Jyllands vestkyst. Hun sejlede sammen med en anden linieskib, HMS Defence, og over 1400 mennesker mistede deres liv i tragedien. Vraget blev udgravet i løbet af 1980erne og Strandingsmuseet St George i Thorsminde åbnede i 1993. Flere specialer på Syddansk Universitets Marinearkæologi programm blev skrivet om St George. Dette specialet undersøger samlingen af navigationsinstrumenter fra vraget og navigation ombord det engelske linieskib. Specialet igen undersøger historien om St Georges sidste rejse med hensyn til Gibbs teori af ’site formation processes’.

A determinação da latitude no mar contou, desde o século XV, com o recurso à altura meridiana do sol observada a bordo dos navios. Para completar o cálculo, necessitavam os pilotos de recorrer a tábuas de declinação do sol, elaboradas previamente pelos cosmógrafos, de acordo com uma tradição muito antiga. Basicamente, estas tabelas eram calculadas a partir do valor conhecido da posição do sol na eclíptica e da inclinação da mesma, mediante uma fórmula hoje fácil de resolver, que tinham soluções um pouco mais complexas naqueles longínquos tempos. Uma referência fundamental para a maioria delas está nas Tábuas Afonsinas, elaboradas e difundidas no tempo de Afonso X de Leão e Castela. Elas próprias já decorrem de uma tradição ainda mais antiga e, apesar das correcções que mereceram na Europa do século XV, essa tradição perdurou nas tábuas náuticas portuguesas difundidas na fase áurea das navegações oceânicas. Cremos que estas últimas têm um ponto de partida no Almanaque Perpétuo, de Abraão Zacuto, embora a forma como ele se espelha nas tabelas usadas pelos pilotos, tenha uma evolução lenta, nem sempre muito coerente com os conhecimentos astronómicos da época. As primeiras tábuas foram adaptadas de forma tosca, e os valores de base – nessa altura já com mais de seis séculos – não foram corrigidos de forma adequada. Pedro Nunes, tentou alterá-las sem sucesso, propondo um novo valor para a inclinação da eclíptica, e elaborando tabelas de interpolação que permitiriam elaborar tábuas de declinação para muitas décadas. Contudo, a documentação náutica que até hoje nos chegou revela que as suas propostas não tiveram eco antes do final do século, e muito depois da sua morte. Há, todavia, algumas excepções que importa considerar.

Underwater archaeological salvage operations in Greece commenced with ‘nude diving’ in Lord Elgin’s wrecked ship Mentor in 1802 at Kythera, continued with hard helmet diving at the Salamis straits in 1877, at Antikythera in 1900 and Madhia in 1907, and advanced with the introduction of SCUBA diving in the late 1950s. First underwater excavation took place at Grand Congloué in 1950 and from then on, salvage was transformed and developed into a separate discipline of archaeology, progressing today in using Closed Circuit Rebreathers and Atmospheric Diving Systems, as in the recent Antikythera project (2012- 2014). Except for SCUBA diving gear
and visual observation, several other technological methods and equipment have been used after the mid-twentieth century, to locate and map submerged cultural remains, especially in deep waters. The article comprises an overview of innovative underwater archaeological research efforts in Greek territorial waters, distinct from the standard diving methods and technologies used in the field. The overview of the history of their use will lead, at the end,to the discussion of their efficiency and basic principles to be followed based on the experience acquired.

MA Thesis in Maritime History (Faculty of Letters, Lisbon University FLUL, 2014) - revised version

The present thesis Shipwrecks of the “Carreira da Índia” (1595-1623) – Sources
for the Study in Portuguese Maritime History deals with factors which caused losses of
ships of the Carreira da Índia which linked the European metropolis Lisbon with its
Goa based Estado da Índia between 1595 and 1623. Although Portuguese-Asiatic
shipping was formally separated from the Habsburg Empire during the Union of the
Two Iberian Crowns (1580-1640), the European policies of the Spanish Kings,
especially towards the United Provinces and the Netherlands had its influence and
effects on the Portuguese side.
Shipwrecks, either on the outward bound or homeward bound voyages had
occurred for various reasons since the early days of the Carreira da Índia yet the
emergence of the two private European Companies, the Dutch United East India
Company (founded in 1602) and the British East India Company (founded in 1600)
were a new momentum by which’s characteristics of concurrence and struggle for
supremacy of the European-Asiatic spice trade, losses of Portuguese ships were caused
by planned and executed military operations as well.
Focusing on the geographical region of the Mozambique Channel in which the
losses have taken place, the thesis combines a historiographical approach with records
of underwater archaeology analyzing questions related to the political environment and
planed military operations in which shipwrecks have occurred as well as causes of
shipwrecks observing ship building and design modifications and effects related to
economic patterns such as the monetary flows of the Portuguese outward bound
shipping during the period of observation.

Naufragios da Careira da Índia (1595-1623)

The main cosmographer and engineer of Portugal, Luis Serrão Pimentel (1613-1679), gained notoriety at the service of nautical and military architecture teaching. Taking into account the positions he held it’s possible to analyze the structure of the scientific culture of the country in the sixteenth century. In what Portuguese nautical science is concerned, we highlight the establishment of the ‘Esfera’ Lesson and the Main Cosmographer Lesson in the context of technical studies of the Iberian Peninsula. The difficulties experienced in the maintenance of overseas possessions, attacked by other european powers, and the end of the Iberian Union in 1640 unveiled the urgent need of an internal organization in the Kingdom. The restructuring of the military authorities was a priority to the new King, John IV. Several organs emerged, such as the War Council, to reinforce the commitment to provide the country with military defenses to face the Spanish reluctance to accept the Portuguese independence. In this context, the military education was institutionalized with the establishment of the Fortification and Military Architecture Lesson, the first training school for future engineers, by request of Luís Serrão Pimentel.
Pimentel was author of the first portuguese fortification treaty, Methodo Lusitanico (1680), and several navigation manuals. As a professor, he was involved in the longitude issue, he examined future pilots and engineers, and he actively participated in important moments of the campaigns of the Independence Restoration. The legacy of his written production resulted of a theoretical knowledge developed from the practice obtained with the Discoveries and the military situation then experienced. Luís Serrão Pimentel has lived in a century of political, military and scientific revolutions and he knew how to take advantage from it. He was recognized by Cosimo III Medici and by Academia dos Generosos, a high selected club of intellectuals.

Keywords:
Luís Serrão Pimentel;
Seventeenth Century;
Scientific Education;
Nautical Science;
Military Architecture.

Texto ajustado, depois da apresentação no congresso de Huelva (2006), nomeadamente em questões náuticas relacionadas com a 1ª viagem de Colombo. Especial referência para as observações que foram tidas pela historiografia corrente como uma verificação da variação geográfica da declinação magnética, que reputo como uma leitura errónea do "Diário da Primeira Viagem"

Este trabalho foi desenvolvido para as Comemorações do Ano Internacional da Astronomia, 2009, promovidas pela Sociedade Portuguesa de Astronomia. Nele descreve-se o funcionamento de um oitante ou octante que é um instrumento de medida da longitude, extrapolada a partir da medida da altura de um astro, que se obtém, retirada de uma dupla reflexão da luz do astro de referência, ou do Sol, em dois espelhos incorporados nesse instrumento.

The aim of this thesis is to study the institutionalization of nautical teaching in Portugal between 1779, the year of creation of the Royal Marine Academy, and in 1807, the transfer of the Court to Brazil.
In the second half of the 18th century, the changes in nautical teaching emerged within the education reform initiated by King Joseph I and developed by his daughter, Mary I. The cosmographer-in-chief lesson disappeared to give place to a more professional structure enhanced by the emergence of academies, created specifically for this purpose, which would be the precursor of polytechnic education in Portugal.
The first step in pilotage teaching was given in Oporto with the creation of a nautical class in 1762 and later on with the appearance in Lisbon of the Royal Marine Academy (1779) and the Royal Marine Guards Academy (1782) and, in Oporto, of the Royal Academy of Marine and Commerce (1803). In addition to the cities of Metropolis, by the early years of the 19th century the portuguese nautical teaching already knew a geography that extended to the State of India and Brazil.
The first part will present the context of the changes of nautical teaching according with the reforms of the second half of the 18th century, especially the end of the cosmographer-in-chief lesson and of the Sphere Class, and the reform of the University of Coimbra.
The second part is dedicated to the creation of the academies, their curricula, teachers, and dynamic operation. Finally, in this part, we present the issue of duplication or fusion of the academies of Lisbon and the transfer of the Portuguese Court to brazilian colony, a fact that would influence the structuring of the nautical teaching in the early decades of the XIXth century.

Keywords

Nautical Teaching
XVIIIth and XIXth Centuries
Cosmographer-in-chief
Academies

Since the conquest of Goa in 1510 and Malacca the following year, the Portuguese began to establish a trade Empire in Asia. The high demand for Asian goods, such as spices, tea, silks, cottons, porcelains and other luxury items, combined with high profit rates associated with the trade, spark the interest of other European nations.
By the end of the 16th century Europeans began to acquire information on the routes to Asia and were willing to pay for any information on how to navigate safely to and through the East Indies. On route to China, the shoals on the coast of Vietnam were the most feared by pilots. And thus began a quest of placing, portrayal, naming and finally surveying of what became known as the Paracel Islands.

O S PORTUGUESES vão, sob a orientação do Infante D. Henrique, iniciar uma das maiores epopeias da história da humanidade, os Descobrimentos. As causas que conduziram a este movimento são várias, saindo fora dos objectivos deste trabalho a sua análise. Quanto ao sucesso obtido, também diversas são as razões apontadas para a sua explicação. De entre estas destacamos o elevado grau de conhecimentos técnicos e científicos que os navegadores portugueses dominavam. Adaptarão, numa fase inicial, os processos de navegação mediterrânicos para o Atlântico. Mas cedo estes se revelarão insuficientes para as necessidades duma navegação oceânica, que coloca problemas diferentes daqueles que surgem num «mar fechado», como é o Mediterrâneo, onde as distâncias percorridas são relativamente curtas. Conforme os obstáculos se colocam, as soluções para eles surgem, na maior parte das vezes. O ponto marcado por rumo e estima, torna-se insuficiente para o rigor necessário para a posição; passa-se a determinar essa posição determinando a latitude do lugar, pela altura meridiana do sol ou de estrelas.

João Baptista Lavanha viveu na transição do século XVI para o século XVII, um período crucial na História das Ciências e das Tecnologias, e a sua carreira profissional levou-o a percorrer os caminhos da Península Ibérica, quer no sentido físico, quer no domínio estritamente intelectual, cruzando dois universos culturais que, em certos aspectos, viviam separadamente. Foi autor de uma obra prolífera e polifacetada: engenheiro, matemático, cosmógrafo, cronista, genealogista, cartógrafo, historiador, teórico da arte de navegar, bem como da arquitectura naval, professor de discípulos ilustres e de méritos reconhecidos, às múltiplas actividades que desenvolveu nem sequer estiveram alheias algumas das grandes questões do tempo, como, por exemplo, a do cálculo da longitude no alto mar, problema da maior importância na História da Náutica, até aos meados do século XVII.

In this paper, the results of a cartometric analysis of a number of Portuguese and Spanish charts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries are presented and conclusions are drawn concerning the length of the degree of latitude adopted in the Iberian nautical cartography of the Renaissance. Under the light of what we know about the navigational and charting methods of the time, a new interpretation of the textual and cartographic sources is proposed. Rather than being the result of technical considerations or precise measurements, the adoption of the various standards during this long period appears to be no more than the echoes of the traditional models of the Earth and of the political disputes between Portugal and Spain

Approach to Nautical teaching in Portugal since the mid-16th century leaves the eminently practical sphere of master-apprentice transmission and begins to organize and standardize itself. The new corpus of theoretical knowledge has its main regulation and systematization in the 'Regimento do Cosmógrafo-Mor' (1592). The Cosmógrafo-Mor is the responsible for dissemination and training of pilots and seamen.

Abordagem ao ensino Náutico em Portugal desde que em meados do século XVI deixa a esfera eminentemente prática da transmissão mestre-aprendiz e começa a organizar-se e a padronizar-se. O novo corpus de saber teórico tem a sua principal regulamentação e sistematização no Regimento do Cosmógrafo-Mor de 1592. O cosmógrafo-mor passa a ser responsável pelos aspectos relativos à divulgação e formação dos pilotos e homens do mar.

Coordenação de Maria da Graça A. Mateus Ventura e Luís Jorge Semedo de Matos.

As novidades do mundo evidenciadas em áreas complementares, confluentes na produção do conhecimento científico e na representação cartográfica e textual, constituiram o mote do debate que reuniu em Portimão, em Maio de 2002, duas dezenas de investigadores vindos do Brasil, Itália, França, Inglaterra, Espanha e de Portugal. As VIII Jornadas de História Ibero-americana associaram-se à XI Reunião Internacional de História da Náutica e da Hidrografia para comemorar, num amplo debate científico, cinco séculos sobre o nascimento de D. João III, de Damião de Góis e de Pedro Nunes, bem como da elaboraçaõ em Lisboa do planisfério anónimo conhecido por “Cantino”. Dessa feliz reunião resultou este livro que traduz a salutar partilha do conhecimento e a divulgação dos estudos mais recentes sobre a náutica, a cartografia e a astronomia na Europa quinhentista.

Reviews of the earliest archaeological evidence of nautical equipment have listed paddles and logboats from western Europe, Japan and Nigeria (Bednarik, 1997, 1999, 2003, 2014). Most of these finds are from various parts of Europe, and no very early examples have been reported from China in the international literature (McGrail, 2004: 352–4, 2015: 108–12). These discoveries include the mesolithic paddles found in peatbogs at Holmgaard (Denmark) and Star Carr (England) (McGrail, 1991). The Star Carr remains date from about 9500 years bp (Clark, 1971: 177). The most ancient boats currently known are the logboats from several sites: one boat, about 3 m long, from the peat of Pesse (Holland), which is 8265 ± 275 years old according to its now calibrated radiocarbon date (Van Zeist, 1957); one from Noyensur-Seine (France), at 7960 ± 100 bp; and another from Lystrup 1 (Denmark), at 6110 ± 100 BP (Arnold, 1996). A fragment of a logboat from Lough Neagh in Northern Ireland has been attributed to the 8th millennium bp (Callaghan and Scarre, 2009). The logboat excavated at La Marmotta on Lake Bracciano near Rome is of the late 7th millennium bp, coming from a lacustrine setting (Fuggazzola Delpino and Mineo, 1995). Other remains of logboats, reported from the Americas, Arabia, China and Southeast Asia are considered to be more recent than these finds, that is from the late Holocene (McGrail, 2010). Further discoveries of wooden paddles from that period have been reported from three sites in northern Germany: Duvensee, Gettorf and Friesack. A worked reindeer antler from Husum, Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, however, may be a boat rib of a skin-boat of the Ahrensburgian, an Epipaleolithic tool tradition (Ellmers, 1980); it is thought to be in the order of 10,500 years old. Beginning with the mid Holocene, finds of boats and other navigational equipment become more common, particularly with evidence from Pharaonic Egypt (Ward, 2009). For comparison, in Japan the five paddles and a 6 m-long Early Jomon logboat from Torihama are 6000–5500 years old (Morikawa and Hashimoto, 1994), and the six paddles and partial logboat from Kamo date from about 5100 bp (Matsomoto et al., 1952). At Dufuna in the Chad basin of western Africa, however, uncalibrated radiocarbon dates of 7670 ± 110 and 7264 ± 55 years bp have been obtained from a logboat, almost matching the oldest known in Europe (Breunig, 1996). Like so much of the great wealth of archaeological information available from China, the following three early logboats from that country (Fig. 1) have so far only found fleeting mention in Chinese publications, and have thus remained unknown to Western researchers.

Na segunda metade do século XVIII o ensino da ciência náutica sofreu alterações estruturantes, no âmbito de uma mudança do paradigma educativo iniciada no reinado de D. José I. Em 1772, a Reforma da Universidade de Coimbra incluiu a criação de uma Faculdade de Matemática materializando a importância a que a aprendizagem das ciências exatas tinha chegado. Todas as profissões ligadas à transmissão de conhecimentos matemáticos tinham então um maior grau de exigência. No caso específico da náutica, nomeadamente da formação de oficiais para a Marinha, a figura do cosmógrafo mor, associada a uma transmissão de saberes de moldes medievais entre o mestre e seu discípulo, desaparecia para dar lugar a uma formação mais profissional, enquadrada numa estrutura potenciada pelo aparecimento de academias em Lisboa e no Porto. O objetivo deste texto é o de acompanhar o fim do exercício de cosmógrafo mor na sequência da Reforma de Coimbra e num tempo de mudança estrutural para o ensino da náutica em Portugal que conheceu uma transmissão de conhecimentos assentes no estudo e prática da matemática em escolas próprias.

Resumo Na segunda metade do século XVIII, o ensino da náutica materializou uma nova conceção de educação: formar para servir e formar de acordo com novos métodos. No caso da Marinha, como noutros domínios, o emprego do saber adquirido transformaria o ofício em profissão e o artesão, entenda-se a figura do professor, em funcionário dotado dos mais modernos conhecimentos técnicos que, naquela época, se aprendiam e se ensinavam. A assunção da Matemática, enquanto disciplina dotada de uma Faculdade própria, nascida no âmbito da política reformista do rei D. José, nomeadamente da renovação da Universidade de Coimbra, forneceria às academias náuticas de Lisboa um escol de professores, alguns deles naturais da colónia brasileira, altamente qualificados para o adestramento de futuros pilotos. Neste artigo, enquadraremos a vida profissional desses professores luso-brasileiros no contexto de uma renovação do conhecimento matemático, nomeadamente no ensino da náutica.

In the second half of the eighteenth century the teaching of nautical science suffered structural changes within an educational paradigm shift started in the reign of King José I. In 1772, the reform of the University of Coimbra included the creation of a Faculty of Mathematics materializing the importance that the learning sciences had arrived. All professions related to the transmission of mathematical knowledge they had then a higher level of demand.. In the specific case of nautica, including the training of officers for the Navy, the figure of cosmographer-in-chief associated with a transmission of knowledge in medieval patterns between the master and his disciple, disappeared to give way to a more professional training, a framed structure enhanced by the appearance of academies in Lisbon and Porto. The purpose of this text is to follow the end of the cosmographer-in-chief following the Reform of Coimbra and a time of structural change for nautical teaching in Portugal that met a transmission of knowledge based on the study and practice of mathematics in their own schools.

Um 300 v.Chr. verfaßte Euklid in Alexandria, dem damaligen wissenschaftlichen Zentrum der westlichen Welt, sein Hauptwerk, die „Elemente“. Sie sollten in den nächsten zwei Jahrtausenden die Grundlage der Mathematik bilden. Proklos, der im 5. Jahrhundert
einen Kommentar zum ersten Buch der „Elemente“ verfaßte, überliefert die Anekdote, der ägyptische Herrscher Ptolemaios I. habe Euklid einmal gefragt, ob es nicht für die Geometrie (dieser Begriff steht stellvertretend für die Mathematik als Ganzes) einen kürzeren Weg gebe als die Lehre der „Elemente“. Daraufhin soll Euklid – nach Proklos’ Worten1 – geantwortet haben, es führe kein königlicher Weg (d. h. kein besonderer Weg für Könige)
zur Geometrie. Die Überzeugung, die hinter dieser Anekdote steht, daß es in der Wissenschaft auf die Begabung, die Fähigkeiten und den Fleiß des einzelnen ankomme und nicht auf seine gesellschaftliche Stellung, veranlaßte uns, diesen Euklid zugeschriebenen Ausspruch als Titel der Festschrift zu wählen. Er erscheint uns deshalb besonders passend zu sein, weil Frau
Reich zu jener selten gewordenen Spezies akademischer Lehrerinnen und Lehrer gehört, die Kollegen und Schüler nach ihren Leistungen beurteilen und nicht nach ihrem möglichen
oder tatsächlichen Einfluß im wissenschaftspolitischen Macht- und Ränkespiel.
Folgende Reihenfolge der Artikel wurde gewählt: An erster Stelle steht Mathematik bzw. Mathematikgeschichte (Geometrie, Algebra, Analysis usw.), ferner Informatik, dann folgen Artikel zur Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, nämlich Geschichte der Astronomie, Physik, Geowissenschaften, Chemie und Geschichte der Technik. Schließlich möchte sich die Herausgeberin ganz herzlich bedanken für Anregungen bei Herrn Folkerts, Herrn Knobloch und Stefan Kirschner sowie für Beratung und Hilfe in
LATEX-Fragen bei Herrn Sonar, Uta Hartmann sowie bei Ma Li (Göteborg) und Frau Bréard. Zu danken sei auch allen Beitragenden zur Festschrift für die gute Zusammenarbeit.

Stefan Kirschner und Gudrun Wolfschmidt

Mit Beiträgen von Stefan Kirschner, Menso Folkerts, Peter Schreiber, Charlotte und Jürgen Schönbeck, Alexander Kreuzer, Walter Benz, Bertram Maurer, Teun Koetsier, Andrea Eberhard-Bréard, Ma Li, Thomas Sonar, Olaf Neumann, Michael von Renteln, Peter Ullrich, Rainer Ansorge, Rossana Tazzioli, Günter Löffladt, Andrea Blunck, Manfred Kudlek, Ulrich Eckhardt, Ivo Schneider, Andreas Kühne, Hans-Heinrich Voigt, Fritz A. Krafft, Karl-Heinrich Wiederkehr, Daniela Wünsch und Klaus P. Sommer, Karl von Meyenn, Eberhard Knobloch, Günther Oestmann, Cornelia Lüdecke, Jost Weyer, Christoph J. Scriba.

The aim of this article is to analyze in depth the life course of Fray Ignacio Muñoz, a seventeenth-century Dominican friar assigned to the Philippines. Particularly relevant is Muñoz’s use of his scientific knowledge, as he tailored it to the needs of the Spanish empire in order to obtain the patronage of Philip IV. Muñoz’s own handwritten documentation and that produced in response by Spanish institutions are the main sources for the study.