<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scene: Admiral Hawke leaves the Admiralty and storms up the hill towards the Greenwich observatory with Lieutenants on either side. The buttons on his shoulders shine in the sun. His pudgy face runs with sweat from climbing the hill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Scene: The door of the Observatory slams open. Inside the room we see a silver line marked on the floor on one side of the letters A.M. on the other side of the letters P.M.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Admiral Hawke: What the hell are we paying you fancy astronomers for?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley: [Smiles and looks up from his work, and adjusts his wig. ]
Pray tell me, what bothers you Admiral?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Admiral Hawke: [Piggy brown eyes fix on the astronomer.]
Two ships! Two ships sunk in the spice Islands. Two ships that sunk that could’ve been saved if we’d had better navigation! That’s what we\u2019re paying you boys for isn’t it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley: [Stands tall, picks up his walking cane and twiddles his wig from side to side on his head.]
Tell me Admiral, do you know the Meridian waltz?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Admiral Hawke: what the devil are you talking about, man?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley: [Moves to stand directly on the silver line.]
It goes like this\u2026. Anti-Meridian!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley : [Sweeps his left foot over the silver line to land on the left side]
\u2026Post Meridian!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley: [Sweeps his right foot over the silver line to land on the right side]
And, close together, step.
Let\u2019s do it again!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anti Meridian, post Meridian, close together, step!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Admiral Hawke: But, we\u2019re to talk about the ships!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley: anti Meridian, post Meridian, close together, step!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[The feet of the two lieutenants start tapping in time.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Astronomer Bradley: Anti Meridian, post Meridian, close together, step!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Self-righteous] Good God man, do you want to keep your job or not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Pauses, and straightens himself] Admiral Hawke: [Frustrated] Yes, yes, the navigation\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley [sweeps his hand towards the view out the window]: Do you see those ships docked down at the Admiralty?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Glows] Yes – glorious aren\u2019t they\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Softly] Do you remember when you were a ship\u2019s boy on one of those ships, learning navigation from the captain?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Dreamy] Wonderful days they were. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: And what did you do to navigate back then?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Remembering – staring off into the distance] Well we got the sextant and measured the height of the sun – then we did the trigonometry to work out where we were using logarithms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Excited] That\u2019s it Admiral! You\u2019ve got it!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Confused] Got what?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Confident] Logarithms!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Confused] What?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [pumping his fists in a circular motion like a locomotive] [The two Lieutenants start pumping their fists in in a circular motion. ] <\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [puzzled] But they were never accurate enough\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Confident. Answering the Admiral] Then with more decimal places, we\u2019ll make them accurate! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Doubtful] But you\u2019d need a great book for that. The size of an encyclopaedia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Confident – Answering the Admiral ] Then that\u2019s what we\u2019ll do!\u00a0 Lieutenants: [Form a line and march, goose-stepping around the room. ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Singing each word drawn out – stepping up pitch on each word] Logarithms! Logarithms!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Singing the call] What\u2019s it called? <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lieutenants: [Put the hands in the air and flutter their wrists]<\/p>\n\n\n\n [Singing response] Logarithms! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Astronomer Bradley: [Singing call] One more time! <\/p>\n\n\n\n Lieutenants: [Singing response – up a note] Logarithms!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [puzzled] But who will we get to calculate these vast books of logarithms? <\/p>\n\n\n\n [The two Lieutenants freeze in mid-step, one knee still in the air. Their eyes boggle. ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Thinking] It would be hours and months of work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n [The two Lieutenants, still frozen mid-step, slowly shake their heads.] Admiral Hawke: [excited] I know! We\u2019ll use women! Vast armies of women! <\/p>\n\n\n\n [The astronomer closes one eye and rolls the other upward. ]<\/p>\n\n\n\n Admiral Hawke: [Inspired ]We need a fancy Latin name for then. We\u2019ll call them a com-putare!<\/p>\n\n\n\n [This is written for my daughter Trinity and my mother Katrina – instead of a narrative, it is a musical act] [I swear this is takes some inspiration from a song \u201cYa, got trouble\u201d from the Musical \u201cThe Music Man\u201d … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/juliangamble.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/DancingAstronomer.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
So you’re here to talk about the ships in the Spice Islands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sing it with me! Logarithms! Logarithms! Logarithms!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lieutenants: [Singing background – pumping their arms] Logarithms! Logarithms! Logarithms!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lieutenants: [Singing background – pumping their arms] Logarithms! Logarithms!\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
[Astronomer Bradley looks down, sighs and pouts. ]
<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/juliangamble.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Logtablesbook.jpeg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"