Mathematics and Empire, Navigation and Exploration

Abstract

In the early modern period mathematics played a prominent role in promoting English expansion. Mathematicians invented navigational instruments, prepared astronomical tables, drew up maps, and authored promotional literature. Henry Briggs (1561–1630) helped make mathematical practice a useful tool for navigation. He also assisted both Luke Foxe and Thomas James, captains of 1631 voyages in search of a Northwest passage. The 1631 voyages provide a framework for a study of Briggs’s navigational and geographical work as well as his involvement with the Virginia Company and both colonization and exploration. Interestingly, despite the well‐known tension between Foxe and James concerning the value of mathematical theory versus practical sailing skills, the similarity of the actual navigational techniques used on the two voyages is striking. Thus the 1631 voyages also demonstrate the extent to which, despite their different emphases, Foxe and James shared a navigational culture that included mathematical methods and instruments.“Foolish toy! Babies’ plaything of haughty Admirals, and Commodores, and Captains; the world brags of thee, of thy cunning and might; but what after all canst thou do, but tell the poor, pitiful point, where thou thyself happenest to be on this wise planet, and the hand that holds thee: no! not one jot more! Thou canst not tell where one drop of water or one grain of sand will be to‐morrow noon; and yet with thy impotence thou insultest the sun! Science! Curse thee, thou vain toy. … Curse thee, thou quadrant!” dashing it to the deck “no longer will I guide my earthly way by thee; the ship’s level compass, and dead‐reckoning, by log and by line, these shall conduct me and show me my place on the sea.”—Herman Melville, Moby Dick