Scholarly Article: Worsley’s Navigational Logbook aboard the James Caird

The Navigational Logbook of Frank Worsley, one he kept whilst navigating the James Caird from Elephant Island to South Georgia is now available via this link:

https://www.canterburymuseum.com/research/records-of-the-canterbury-museum/records-of-the-canterbury-museum/

The logbook was discovered at the Canterbury Museum, but instead of a heroic read, it took nearly a decade to decipher and prove each character. Cmdr Worsley utilized a form of celestial navigation popular in the 1800s, and as such, proved itself incomprehensible even to modern practitioners of celestial navigation.

Each page of the logbook is presented, along with a precise transcription and explanation of each day’s navigational tasks. Unlike Lansing, 1959, this isn’t a summary. Rather, it is an exacting and exhaustive document, peer reviewed by others familiar with time sight celestial navigation.