ABSTRACT
During the reign of Henry VIn there was scarcely an Englishman to be found who was skilled in 'the New Navigation', new because it made use of mathematics and astronomy. Spanish pilots were employing it for their regular sailings to the New World, Portuguese pilots for reaching Brazil, India and the Far East, but in England it was still chiefly the military engineers who were interested in mathematical instruments, and in maps or plans. The English sailor found no use for the chart, nor for any instrument designed to measure the height ofsun and star. He was satisfied to feel his way about the sea with lead and line, and to store his memory with land-marks and leading marks.
