Doubling. Question for Navigators.

[Poignard]

"...long spells of calm were frequent, so that we did not double Cape St. Roque till February 22."

This is from "The Cruise of the Alerte" by EF Knight. The Alerte was on passage from Trinidad in the South Atlantic to Trinidad in the West Indies.

Does the word "double" here mean any more than to simply round or pass a headland or does it have some deeper technical meaning.

 

[johnchampion]

Only thing I can think of is "doubling the angle on the bow" which is a method of determining distance off a point. Doesn't seem to fit your scenario though.

Principle of the manouevre is that when an angle on the bow of a fixed point doubles you are the same distance off as the distance run from the first point you took an angle to the point where tha angle has doubled. Possibly information which is not of over much use most of the time these days unless you drop the GPS overboard.

 

[Skyva_2]

A very rich word, double;

Shorter Oxford gives a page of definitions, including:

'Double' - Naut trans(itive) - to sail round or to the other side of (a cape or point) 1548. intran - to get round;

example - to double the Cape of Good Hope 1665;

 

[Poignard]

I see. Thanks for that.