37 and 56 degress north?

[1320]

I saw this entry on the journal posted at Ed Hensons' blog. I'm not much of a latitude/longitude guy...but to those of you that are...do those coordinates pinpoint or generalize the location? I "located" my town online as 37 57 and a nearby town at 37 56. I'm pretty certain that there's no silver mine at either coordinate nor in the general vicinity....lol. I need a lesson......

 

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[swiftfan]

It is supposed to be "near" 84 deg lon. But there has been alot of debate of the Prime meridian that was used. Also, if you had a map, and there was even a slight chance you may lose it, would you put exact coordianates on it? I wouldn't. So there's that as well. Good luck, and Happy Hunting!!!

 

[1320]

Thanks for the replies. After rereading my initial post, I didn't do a very good job of asking the question or making a point. However, what I was getting at....these are John Swifts' coordinates and he would have known which meridian he used and he was trying to relocate his mines in the 1700's, when the close read would still have been good enough. With that in mind, he was smart enough to calculate the coordinates, smart enough to commit them to memory (so he wouldn't have to write them down) yet failed to lead others back to the mines using the coordinates?

Is there something in the journals that tells us why he couldn't get back using his very own calculations?

 

[1320]

Thanks franklin....I wonder if the coordinates were added to the journals at some point to push searchers into a different direction?

 

[The Real Swift]

For those in the Northern Hemisphere, Polaris provided a quick and easy solution to celestial navigation. The angular height of Polaris above the horizon approximates one's latitude. This was calculated in that time period by finding angular distances between celestial objects by using the technique of eyeing one's fingers at arm's length. The sextant was developed around 1731 and wasn’t widely used until the early 18[SUP]th[/SUP] century. The first hand-held sextant, based on an arc of 1/6 of a circle or 60 degrees, was developed in 1759. Throughout the seventeenth century and well into the eighteenth century, there was an ongoing press to develop techniques for determining longitude. The missing element was a way to measure time accurately. An error of 4 seconds equates to one nautical mile in locating position or 15 degrees of longitude is equivalent to one hour of time so its really easy to see how the latitude and longitude could be off several degrees in the 1700s. Another common error was reversing the minutes and seconds of latitude and longitude when calculating.

 

[Curtis]

The meridians are a big problem, do you use Greenwich, or the 5 others (including Philadelphia)! Then there is the several different ways to do it..one of which is what I think Swift used...its a series of calculations, (its what the Royal Navy used until a reliable clock was invented) remember what he says--paraphrasing here...by "calculations and astronomical observations". And then there is the polar shifts over the years, and other items that mess with your trying to find the general area. If Swift was not writing in code then his calculations put you somewhat south of Sandyhook for one of the mines.

We located one vein of silver that may have been Swifts ...it traverses the Grayson reservoir dam. The vein starts near the overflow cut and goes across the bottom of the dam and into the next hillside. There was something posted or written about part of it being found in the 1960s when they were digging the lakebed/dam...and its true it goes about 1/4 mile. The opening may have been destroyed when they started excavating. Maybe we could use that location as one of Swifts to find the others by back tracking from there? One of the inspectors from National Mines once told me he found a furnace with a chimney that went up the side of a rock house not too far from the area the foot of the dam is in. We may want to renew searching that area like Boomer mentioned quite a while back.

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Use the SEXTANT; go by 1700's "reckonings"... PROFILE of sextant is Masonic Square & Compass (w/o the "G"). Swift was "Sailor-man"/Pirate)... all his GOLD, SILVER, & Jewelry came from Spanish "plunders"! THAT "period of time" meant that the Commonwealth of VIRGINIA was HUGE! Royal Governor of Virginia asked for the ROYAL NAVY (BRITS) to hunt down and kill ALL pirates; Swift went back to UK, and was put in PRISON! "Went blind" (HA! PROBABLY to his OLD life as a PIRATE). Came back to OLD Virginny; couldn't find those mines...? I like the FILSON stuff!

 

[Rebel - KGC]

It MAY well be that the ASTROLABE was used "on land"... for their NEW Enterprise!

 

[swiftfan]

Quick question.. What times were used to take the celestial observations? Using the same time every evening would keep you on course, right?

 

[Rebel - KGC]

Quick question.. What times were used to take the celestial observations? Using the same time every evening would keep you on course, right?

"Military" Time; 12 am - 24 am or something like that; "NAVY" Time...?
.