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LEUT
James Cook not out by much
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The
Hydro FEG Mission
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The Hydro FEG aims to acquire, manage, produce and distribute
hydrographic, meteorological and oceanographic information
in order to:
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Enable
safe navigation and freedom of manoeuvre in our maritime
areas,
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Support
our Defence Force and national infrastructure,
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Satisfy
our internal obligations for navigation safety,
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Contribute
to the preservation of the marine environment,
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Enable
our Defence Force to exploit the above and below water
physical operating environments for strategic, operational
and tactical advantage, and,
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Satisfy
national and international obligations to manage oceanographic
data.
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When
the RAN’s Hydrographer, CAPT Bruce Kafer, was sent out to make
sure Norfolk Island was in the “right” place, he found
it wasn’t.
Existing charts done by LEUT James Cook during his first voyage
of discovery put the idyllic Pacific Island one mile west from where
it really is.
The state-of-the-art global positioning system used by CAPT Kafer
and his ship’s company, pinpointed the island’s exact
latitude and longitude.
CAPT Kafer said he made the discovery when he went to the island
in 1993 in HMAS Flinders.
Explaining the discrepancy CAPT Kafer said, “In Cook’s
era they were still trying to develop a precise chronometer.
“Taking latitudes was no problem but inaccurate chronometers
often caused an error in longitude,” he said.
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