"The Negro Cook a Good Navigator" 1863

Source: The Friend. Honolulu: December 1, 1863. 

The following amusing anecdote is found in Baron Zach's Correspondence Astronomique, Vol. IV. p. 162. It is a part of the Baron's account of his visit to Cleopatra's Barge, which entered the harbor of Genoa in 1817. 

The Baron was told by the proprietor and commander of the vessel, that his black cook could find the ship's longitude by observation. "There he is," said the young man, pointing to a negro at the stern of the vessel, in his white apron, with a fowl in one hand and a dressing knife in the other. "Come here, John," cried the Captain, "this gentleman is suprised at your calculating the longitude; tell him about it." 

Zach. What method do you employ in calculating the longitude by lunar distances? 

The Cook. "It is indifferent to me. I make use of the method of Maskelyne, of Lyons, of Witchell, and of Bowditch; but I prefer Dunthorne, with which I am more familiar, and which is shorter." 

I could not but express my surprise at language like this from a black cook, with a bleeding fowl in one hand and a larding knife in the other.