Two On A Big Ocean The Story of the First Circumnavigation
of the Pacific Basin
in a Small Sailing Ship


      

Other Books by
Hal Roth
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[Nml] Shooting the Sun


Subject: [Nml] Shooting the Sun
WSMurdoch@XXX.XXX
Date: Thu Jan 21 1999 - 19:17:20 EST


It is funny how if you just sit still, things come your way.

A couple of weeks ago someone asked, "Why is it called shooting the sun ?"

I got a copy of "Taking the Stars" by Peter Ifland for Christmas. (An
interesting book; glossy and expensive, but cheaper from the Hampton Mariner's
Museum than Barnes and Noble.) On page 8 while talking about the cross-staff,
Ifland says:

With the staff held up to the eye with one hand and the transom grasped in the
other, the pose clearly resembles that of an archer taking aim at the sun with
a bow and arrow - hence, the origin of the term "shooting the sun" (Figure 10)

Figure 10 is from a 1552 source.

Bill Murdoch
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