The 46th Harry Brittain Fellowship
17 May to 24 June 2004
FRANCIS PABAI (The Gambia)
The Greenwich Appeal
June 4,1:30pm: The Harry Brittain Fellows arrived at the Royal Observatory after a refreshing cruise on the River Thames from the London Eye and a quick visit round the galleries of the National Maritime Museum.
On this visit, time was a key factor but the weather didn't rise to the occasion. It was a very wet day. On a positive note, the murky weather and intermittent showers were symbolic of the vagaries and challenges that lay ahead of the men of yore that wrestled with the elements, braved uncertainties and sailed through high waters to unfamiliar shores and back again.
Kirsty Pickett at Greenwich |
The year was 1675. Long after Egyptian and Arab navigators had tried their ideas at improving the cumbersome technique of sailing by the stars without much success, England's King Charles 11commissioned the building of an observatory, Greenwich, for an improved way of navigation. Today, King Charles' lofty idea has transformed into the world-famous home of Greenwich Mean Time, the Prime Meridian and John Harrison's Marine Timekeepers attracting over 700, 000 visitors every year from across the globe.
It was Harrison who pioneered the art of scientific navigation and marine timekeeping by inventing the very first functional chronometer. Though the stars gave the most accurate time, Harrison's chronometer proved very useful to sailors because it provided time signals and direction at all times. Born in 1693, a carpenter and clockmaker, Harrison remains a classic example of a compulsive achiever and perfectionist.
He achieved his distinct place in the history of navigation when he entered the royal competition of finding the longitude within thirty miles. He won after several futile attempts and his famous watch, known as the Harrison 4, became the veritable instrument of time and direction of Captain Cook during his voyage to the Pacific.
The Greenwich Mean Time gained global acceptance at the 1884 Conference as fleets and railways around the world were being run on GMT. Experiencing Greenwich is akin to going back centuries in time and living through the ages. Quite apart from listening to an elegant lady dressed in victorian era costume narrating the history of the Royal Observatory, one's attention is captured by the marble busts of the pioneers of what was then called the Summer House. A fascinating array of clocks of various designs and sizes and the International Dateline that divides the world into East and West are aspects of Greenwich no visitor would forget in a hurry.
However, the remarkable feat of launching gyrating satellites into orbit achieved through modern science and technology to facilitate transport throughout the world has eclipsed the once glowing global reputation and significance of Greenwich.
The universal appeal for the development of the Royal Observatory through its ambitious Time and Space project can therefore be best described as a deserving foresight based on a glorious hindsight for the cradle of modern astronomy.
For further information on the training programme,
contact
Jane Rangeley -
jane@cpu.org.uk
Tel: +44 20 7583 7733 Fax: +44 20 7583 6868.
