Fascinating and maddening. Harrison's brilliant, accurate solution to the "longitude problem" discounted...because he wasn't a gentleman.

I just do not want to let go of my Cornwall sailing adventure, hence "Thunderstruck" and "Coasting." In this book, I revisited the scene of the crime, so to speak. It was off the Isles of Scilly in 1707 that Sir Clowdisley Shovell's fleet ran aground and the tremendous losses inspired the Parliament to offer a prize to encourage people to tackle and solve the "Where am I?" problem. This is, I suppose, a YA book. Read it, or Dava Sobel's "Longitude. Or both. And be grateful for GPS.

Could not finish reading this book. It was packed full of history, but got a little long. Wish it had been shorter.

A poorly written, disorganized and rather boring book about the fascinating history of longitude.

Intended for a younger audience, this history book was very accessible. I learned a ton about the age of discovery and the amazing man, John Harrison, who invented a special clock which allowed ship's captains to navigate safely by knowing their longitude.

(Catching up on old reviews from pre-blogging and pre-Goodreads days. Written on 7/23/21 but the book was read years ago. I'm working off my notes.)

a great book about a 18th century story on how longitude was invented. Many societal impacts of science are pointed out, and I regard this is a great example of STEM (before STEM!). A very detailed book both on the scientific information and the background gossip, very happy that I bought it on Greenwich Observatory when I visited!

This is an exciting book about one man's journey to discovering how to find a ships longitude at sea.

Great story--terribly written! Way too may extraneous details and citing sources in the text made for a painful read for all of us--but the story itself is fascinating! It just needs the right author to tell it engagingly. BUT--it caught our attention enough that we decided to learn how to determine our latitude and longitude. We used this youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7yoX...

Note: maybe next time we'll try

The Illustrated Longitude: The True Story of the Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time 1st (first) Thus Edition by Sobel, Dava published by Walker & Company (1998) Hardcover

With a lot of details to explain and a lot of history to cover, I thought Joan Dash did an excellent job of keeping this book very interesting and readable. She was very clear about what was known from pamphlets, journals and letters, and what had to be speculated about based on the known historical events. Joan Dash definitely merits the 2001 Sibert Honor award she received for this book.

(I kept wondering how this matched with some of the details from Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, although it's been too long since I read that one to remember clearly.)

The Longitude Prize
2000
Joan Dash
Sibert Award

Even though I knew the ending to this book Dash’s narrative kept me interested. Her style, void of metaphor, simile, and flowery description, was nonetheless engaging. The use of complex sentence structure that connected ideas and “sounds” like a story teller sounds, kept me turning the pages.

Her honest portrayal of characters whose daily life details eluded her in her research, brought them alive in my imagination. They were like the man across the alley who I know only when he appears in public, but I know is living a detailed private life.

I think the writing style makes this story accessible to readers in a way that many books for young people do not. Focusing on Harrison’s work life, not his family life, helped me see the man and his struggles with the British class system, but at the same time she portrayed him with what we sometimes call the Yankee spirit. He worked hard, ignored obstacles, figured out problems with his watch, fought with the Board of Longitude, and never gave up.

The afterward, glossary, and time line helped answer questions that came to me while reading, and helped put the issue in perspective.

The book design and jacket cover made it feel so old that I had to check the copyright several times. The rough cut pages and the black line sketches remind me of older books collected from antique shops. This all added to the experience of reading this nonfiction book. I have not spoken to any middle school children who read it, but it will be on my shelf of recommended books next year.

Learned so much! Although I still do not understand how longitude is measured, I met amazingly single-minded, courageous, and devoted to a seemingly hopeless task John Harrison, and had a glimpse into how the first marine chronometers came to existence thanks to this man called “Longitude”, despite the setbacks from the Royal Astronomer and the Board of Longitude.

Longitude Prize 1714 20,000 pounds = $12 mln today
1730 Hadley’s reflecting quadrant for taking lunars (evolved into sextant). Uses paired mirrors and a built in horizon.
John Harrison 1693-1776, carpenter and clock maker
Harrison clock in Brocklesby Park, 1722 - from long I’m vitae, heavy tropical hardwood that gives off its own grease, and brass. Still running - never been oiled!!!
1772 George III completes successful testing of H-5 at Richmond
1776 Cook returns with enthusiastic report on Harrison-Kendall watch.
Worked on making clocks until his last days. Son did not continued his tradition.
All three of the sea clocks are lovingly restored by Rupert Gould and exhibited at Greenwich, keeping the time.
The silver clock H-4 also restored by Gould, also at Greenwich, but is stopped so there’s no need to open it to clean it.
Lunars - measuring the elevations of two celestial bodies and the distance bw them, + using charts listing angular distances bw moon and other celestial bodies at different hours of the day as they would be seen from the home port.
At the equator the distance bw one meridian to the next is 68 miles.
Royal Society of London founded 1660. The Society’s Copley medal is the most important scientific award in Great Britain.
Sailing the parallel

Good historical account of longitude discovery. Even Back then there was greed corruption and political shenanigans of all kinds. In spite of all the he stuck with his project. Amazing take of dedication and pursuit of truth.