Posted by Tom Napier on January 06, 2010 at 20:41:58 user Didymus.
In Reply to: Re: Ages in GN posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on January 06, 2010 at 19:55:42:
I notice that Mr. Jemmerling did not expect much of Dick's Latin. When he quotes a tag from Tertullian he immediately translates it. Or was this Ransome not expecting too much of his readers?
Reverting to the original subject, in Chap 12 of GN Captain Flint comments, "It's so light at night up here." In Chap 13 the Sea Bear sets off from the buoy in port with the 3 am ebb tide and reaches the headland just as the sun is rising. Enough time elapses for some of the crew to get some sleep.
In Chap 8 the opposite course, even tacking, appears to take very little time at all. The crew take tea (At 4 pm?) near the headland and arrive in port before the shops close. (At 6 pm?)
If we could tie down the time of sunrise we could fix the time of year.