Une idée a traversé la sagesse grecque pendant des siècles. Elle vient d’un des Sept Sages fondateurs de la philosophie, Anacharsis semble-t-il. Elle fait des gens qui sont en mer une catégorie entre les vivants et les morts, livrée au hasard du vent et des vagues. Appareiller, c’est jouer sa vie et disparaître du monde dès que le bateau passe l’horizon. Plus encore que les marins antiques, ceux de l’ère des découvertes ont vécu cet exil. Ils ont accompli de longs périple

Permettez-moi de dire quelques mots d’un personnage sympathique aux marins, Edmund Halley, dont je crains fort qu’il soit assez méconnu. Edmund Halley dans sa féconde jeunesse La comète qui porte son nom, suite au calcul qu’il fait de sa période lors de son apparition en 1682, l’a installé dans la mémoire collective comme un astronome mineur. Mais il a été aussi mathématicien, physicien, hydrographe, météorologue, ingénieur, un authentique marin, ainsi qu’un vrai gentilhomme

Grønland (1756) The Danish 50-gun Grønland , launched five years ago at Nyholm island near Copenhagen, departs for a scientific expedition in the Mediterranean sea. She got used to navigating these dangerous waters for she protected Danish trade ships against Barbary pirates lately. This expedition is named the Arabia mission. It has been mounted under the auspices of King Frederick V, who has wisely achieved not to get involved in the global war which begun five years ago

Le Neptune François, recueil de cartes marines publié en 1693 The French navy ministry establishes the ‘Dépôt des cartes et plans, journaux et mémoires concernant la navigation’ which is the first official wide-purpose Hydrography Office in the world, but not the prototype of a dedicated organisation. Its purpose looks like the one assigned to the School of Sangres (1420-60) by Prince Henry the Navigator (†1460) according to the facts and legends about his method of explorati

Edmund Halley Edmund Halley, the famous astronomer whom we already acknowledged in previous chronicles, now aged 45, publishes the General Chart of the Variation of the Compass. This chart is based on his observations that he made aboard the Paramour – a weird name for a science-purpose warship. Halley was given command of this 90-ton 6-gun pink in 1698-1700 for the purpose of a hydrographic exploration of the Atlantic ocean to determine the variation of Magnetic North agains

William Phips William Phipps or Phips, aged 36, originally a shipwright before becoming a complete ship captain and a famous treasure...

Edmund Halley Edmund Halley, an astronomer and polymath aged 30, presents at the Royal Society a map of the Trade Winds also known as Easterlies. As for the Atlantic ocean, they have been known by the Portuguese since the beginning of the exploration, that is in the first half of the 15th century. As for the Pacific ocean, this is Andrés de Urdaneta (†1568) who brought them to light in 1565 and plotted a map for the Manila galleon route between the Philippines and Acapulco.

World Map by John Seller John Seller, 39 years old, a compass maker and a writer, already famous in the world of navigation for his handbook entitled Practical Navigation (1669), newly appointed as the Hydrographer to King Charles II, publishes the first volume of a collection of charts and of sailing instructions named The English Pilot . This is a very useful work, if far from being original. One must say that many Seller’s charts actually are Dutch ones copied with English

Jean Picard, a priest, an astronomer and a geodesist, aged 49, has measured an arc of meridian between Paris and Amiens, hence the radius and the circumference of the earth by extrapolation. He is a pupil of Astronomer Pierre Gassendi (†1655), who was also a priest and a philosopher, and as of 1623 a promoter of heliocentricism, ten years before the sentence against Galileo Galilei (†1642). Picard is also one of the 21 first members of the Académie Royale des Sciences founde