The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1903-12-05
THE LONGITUDE OF HONOLULU,
VARIOUS DETERMINATIONS, 1555-19Oa,

group is laid down as in the chart OF
the Spanish galleon, with the name
.'Islas de Mesa" and a note declaring
that they were discovered and named
by Juan Gaetano in 1886.
The large error in the longitude of
La Mesa, of II deg, more than LOCO
nautical miles, is not surprising when
it is considered that chronometers were
not yet dreamed of, that the Spanish
navigators depended entirely on dead
reckoning for their longitudes, that the
use of the log for measuring the
velocity of a ship was not known be-
fore 1897, and that the equatorial cur
rent would be effective in producing
an error of the sign actually found.
Thus La Perouse. coming from Califor-
MIA, found that the error in his dead
reckoning caused by this current, when
he arrived off Hawaii, amounted to
deg. to the east, and Vancouver. COM
ing from the south, found a similar
error from the same cause, amounting
to 5 deg. IA min.
When Captain Cook discovered Ha-
wall, in 17eS. he was not aware that he
had accidentally rediscovered La Mesa.
and his successors at first retained
both La Mesa and the Sandwich ISL
ands on their charts, as may be seen
in the atlas accompanying the early
editions of Cooks Voyages
Seven years later, in .17S5, two of
Cooks officers, Portlock and Dixon, on
their way to the northwest coast. as
their crews were suffering from sour
Wy, headed their ships for the supposed
position of La Mesa, sailed over it. and
ran down the parallel of latitude till
they arrived at Hawaii. A few days
later La Perouse. after searching in
vain for La Mesa, did the same. and
became convinced Of it's identity with
Hawaii.
The charts attached to the early edi-
tons of Cooks Voyages" placed Ke-
alakekua Bay at $50 deg. 90 min, or ISIS.
too far west
Although chronometers were put into
use prior to TIA, as late as 1852 John
, Harrison won a reward of 10000 pounds
from the British government for hav-
ing constructed a chronometer which,
according to the test made, determined
the difference of longitude of Ports
mouth, England, and Jamaica within
eighteen miles. The prize in question
was offered in 1714. and it took AZ years
to make sufficient improvements in
chronometers to win it. Captain
Cooks error of only 1885,. or four and
one half miles in the longitude of Ho-
| nolulu was. therefore, remarkably
small for that time.
Captain Vancouver, in 1880, adopted
the same longiture of Kealakekua as
Captain Cook. viz, 156 deg. 90 min.
The true longitude of Cooks observa-
| tory there is about 155 deg. IS min. 80
sec. Vancouver gives for the longitude
of his anchorage off Waikiki, Oahu, 157
| deg. so min. % sec. W., which is only
| half mile too far west, and for Wal
| mea, Kauai, 159 deg. 40 min. w, which
| is probably within quarter of mile
| of the true longitude.
Captain Freycinet, of the scientific
exploring ship L'Uranie, in 1919. made
| the longitude of Kealakekua 156 deg
04 min. 23.5 sec. w. from Greenwich,
which is SO sec. too far west. He made
the longitude of Honolulu 157 deg. 81
min. 1852 sec. W. from Greenwich
| which is about sec. too far east.
1
| S. exploring expedition, in 1910, adopt
ed Captain Cooks longitude of Keala-
kekua Bay, viz, 156 deg. 90 min. w.
and placed Honolulu at 157 deg. 54 min
W., and Waimea, Kauai, at 159 deg
A min. 30 Sec, both of them s sec. too
far west.
During the years 1856 the late Pro
lessor Chester S. Lyman, afterwards {
professor at Yale University, who wa
then residing in Honolulu for hi
health, assisted Mr. David Flitne1
. chronometer maker, in establishing
small observatory here, and made
series of meridional observations of TIL
moon, in order to determine the longi
tude. The result he obtained. usin
the predicted places of the moon i
t the American "Ephemeris,' was 10
, 37m. 15s. W., or 12s. too far east.
l In the year 1868. M. F'leuriais, in tn
service of the Bureau des Long,
) tudes," who came to observe a trans
: of Mercury at Honolulu, established a
/ observatory near the Catholic Cattle
$ dral, where he observed nineteen mer
, dional transits of the moons first liml
, and eight of the second limb. Thes
| OBSERVATIONS are puDuSIleu III ueldil ]
l the appendix of the Connaissance de
? Temps for 1872. The result, as fir!
$ published, was 1850 deg. 10 min. SO Sc
: west of Paris. or 157 deg. so mil
r 2S5 sec. W. of Greenwich, or 5.4 Sc
too far east.
/ But in No. 25s6-7 of the Astron,
o mische Nachrichten, for April, 1SS
: we find a reduction of Fleuriais' oil
= servations for longitude, carrie
i around the world in 1s67-70. On page
Y 345-6 are given the single results oil
: tanned in Honolulu in October-Decen
Der, 1868, q In number, and the long
: tude deduced from them is 10 h. 81 +
J. $3.50 s., or 1.3 s. too far east. The.
h results were obtained by combining IL
: observations at Honolulu with Il
|, actual observations of the moons pla,
: made during the same period at Wasl
G ington, Greenwich and Paris.
s In September, 1874, Captain G.
TnnCitJ1da