The Caird Library

 Finally at the end of the day we visited the library and got to look at illustrations of some of Cloudesley Shovell's victories and the log book from one of the surviving ships from the night of his death. The log book mentioned some of the harsh conditions the sailors faced.

One of the surviving ship's logs from the fatal night
of October 22nd, 1707

Photographing a picture to be featured in the film

We also got to see the consolatory letter sent by the Reverend at St Paulinus Church, Crayford to Lady Shovell in her time of grief. It was this national tragedy of the loss of her husband that saw the Longitude act being put in place to prevent anything like this happening again.

An illustration of the defeat of the French fleet by Sir Cloudesley Shovell

Longitude Punk'd Exhibition

Matt's group discuss their plan of action for 
filming Lady Shovell in the Longitude Punk'd exhibition

Lady Shovell speaks about her grief due to her husband's death. She read from the consolatory letter that was sent to her by Reverend Gilbert Crockatt of St Paulinus Church in Crayford. We learnt that he was good friends with her husband which was why he had sent her this letter. He had said in the letter; 'the shortest lines are usually the straightest' and 'Nor is a circle less perfect for being small'. She explained that these lines gave her hope that one day lives will no longer be lost at sea, and that sailors will be able to sail the shortest, safest routes because they will finally have awareness of their Longitude. 

Lady Shovell reacted to the relabelling of her husband's portrait and was shocked, she wondered why her husband was remembered like this when he had achieved so much in his lifetime. A line of the caption read "Cloudesley Shovell, renowned collector of sticks."

Later on in the day they interviewed Dr Finch Boyer, curator of the exhibition who explained that the artist responsible for the caption had found Shovell's name so ridiculous that they couldn't take him seriously, thus influencing them when creating this humorous caption.

The other group filmed John Harrison who explained his first pendulum clock H1 which is replicated in the exhibition also featuring a comical label. He spoke about how, even after creating the bimetallic strip that compensated for heat changes, his invention still didn't meet the requirements of the Board of Longitude.

The Royal Observatory Greenwich - Meridian line

The girls from En Pointe dance group arrived in their outfits ready to perform their Horn pipe dance on the Greenwich meridian line.

    Stood on the Meridian line: the line that separates the Eastern
and Western hemisphere

    Final preparations as the girls rehearse their routine
 ready to be filmed

The rest of the group set up the cameras using the skills they have learned and filmed the dance routine.

Thoughts on Today's Activities

I spoke to some of the participants and asked them what they thought of this morning's session

Gracie: What did you enjoy about this morning's activities?
I enjoyed the practise interviews with the camera, and learning how to control it.

Alice: What was the most interesting thing you learnt this morning?
I liked finding out how they told the time before clocks existed and learning how to use W.I.F.F.L (W.I.F.F.L is the acronym for (W) white balance, (I) iris, (F) focus, (F) frame, (L) levels - sound)

Lotte: What was your favourite part of this morning?
I really liked learning how the camera worked.

This project is about the Longitude act, what was this all about?
In the old days lots of sailors died because they didn't know where they were going, so they came up with this thing called the Longitude act. There are different time zones all around the world; in one place you might be having your breakfast, whilst in another part of the world you might be eating your lunch. Knowing the time it was where you were in the world was an important thing you needed to know your Longitude.

Oscar:  Why did so many sailors die in the past?
They didn't know where they were going, they knew their Latitude (North, South) but not their Latitude (East, West), they needed a clock,

What did sailor's need to know to be able to know their Longitude?
They needed a clock that could tell them the time in two places.

Why are their twenty four meridians?
There are twenty four because the world is divided into twenty four time zones.

Oscar do you know how many degrees are in each meridian?
There are 15 degrees.

If I was travelling West from Greenwich and it is 10am local time, when it is noon at Greenwich, how many degrees Longitude will I be West of Greenwich?
That's easy, if I am two hours behind Greenwich time I am two meridians away. If there are 15 degrees in each meridian that must mean I am 30 degrees West of Greenwich.

Libby: What was one thing you learnt today?
We had to make sure the sound levels were correct as if they were too high they can damage your hearing.


Overall, the group enjoyed learning how to use the equipment and got grasp of it quickly.