Much of what we know of early dead reckoning and celestial navigation comes from the extant sixteenth-century writings of land-bound theoretical mathematicians, cosmographers, or independent writers with no empirical experience in navigation at sea. The writings on navigation by these early scholars have been largely accepted by modern writers as historically accurate, but a severe scrutiny of these early works reveal that they are filled with misconceptions, and errors. As a result, the adverse impact on current written history can be seen when historians cannot agree within hundreds of miles on the landfall of Columbus in the islands and the landfall of Ponce de Leon in Florida, even though their navigational logs are accurate and a tract derived from the logs accurately indicates where they touched shore. This study examines the writings of early sixteenth-century and later twentieth century historians to identify and correct these errors in the written history of early navigation.

This material from the Early Seafaring Exploration Series, published by the New World Explorers, Inc., is copyright protected. Reproduction and distribution is permitted for non-profit educational use. Reproduction and use of the illustrations in other writings should be obtained from the publisher.

Vol. 2, #4 - Early Seafaring Exploration Series .............. Copyright - 2002
Eighteen pages, three illustrations (charts) ..................... Douglas T. Peck

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