I Had Time In The Fijis To Compare My Chronometer With Two Other
Chronometers.
Two weeks previous, at Pago Pago, in Samoa, I had
asked my captain to compare our chronometer with the chronometers on
the American cruiser, the Annapolis.
This he told me he had done -
of course he had done nothing of the sort; and he told me that the
difference he had ascertained was only a small fraction of a second.
He told it to me with finely simulated joy and with words of praise
for my splendid time-keeper. I repeat it now, with words of praise
for his splendid and unblushing unveracity. For behold, fourteen
days later, in Suva, I compared the chronometer with the one on the
Atua, an Australian steamer, and found that mine was thirty-one
seconds fast. Now thirty-one seconds of time, converted into arc,
equals seven and one-quarter miles. That is to say, if I were
sailing west, in the night-time, and my position, according to my
dead reckoning from my afternoon chronometer sight, was shown to be
seven miles off the land, why, at that very moment I would be
crashing on the reef. Next I compared my chronometer with Captain
Wooley's. Captain Wooley, the harbourmaster, gives the time to
Suva, firing a gun signal at twelve, noon, three times a week.
According to his chronometer mine was fifty-nine seconds fast, which
is to say, that, sailing west, I should be crashing on the reef when
I thought I was fifteen miles off from it.
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