this post was submitted on 20 Jul 2026
2 points (62.5% liked)
AskHistorians
1403 readers
6 users here now
QUESTIONS
- Be civil.
- Be specific.
- Historical topic must be from at least 20 years ago.
- Post questions in the title. Elaboration is for the text box.
RESPONSES
- Be civil.
- Provide comprehensive answers.
- Please provide primary and secondary sources upon good faith request. Tertiary sources, like Wikipedia, are not accepted.
askhistorians is a community for academic answers to questions about history. Polls, opinions, bigotry, grammar pedantry, and personal insults will be removed.
Be sure to check out our partner community at: !askscience@lemmy.world !ireland@lemmy.world !dataisbeautiful@lemmy.world !canada@lemmy.ca
founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Latitude was somewhat easy to determine since antiquity and the equipment to find it was common on most ships as was current speed in the ocean. Most cargo ships sailing out of sight of shore would try to aim laterally for the city in question then sail near the coast to get to where they needed to go.
Longitude took until the late 18th century to find as it required an accurate clock set to a known meridian. Before then, it was a guess based on approximate recorded speed.
Columbus was an idiot who miscalculated the circumference of the Earth, but crews at the time commonly sailed out of sight of shore.
The story of that clock's evolution is cool. Unfortunately I can't remember where I saw it.
Edit This one is close but a but a bit dry.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i0VFLs7vbLc