Ships for Raleigh's Expeditions

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Ships for Raleigh's Expeditions It was not only as a navigational instructor that Raleigh employed

Harriot. He was involved with the design of the ships for Raleigh's

expeditions as well as being involved in the construction of the

vessels and selecting the seamen. He was Raleigh's accountant, being

responsible for obtaining funding for the expeditions and keeping all

the accounts.

Raleigh had the captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe make an

expedition to Roanoke Island off the coast of North Carolina in 1584.

Although there is no direct evidence that Harriot made this voyage,

Quinn in [23] argues convincingly that he was one of those making this

preliminary survey. Harriot was certainly on a voyage to Virginia

organised by Raleigh in 1585-86. He sailed from Plymouth on 9 April

1585 on board the Tiger and his observations of a solar eclipse on 19

April have allowed modern scientists to compute the exact position of

the ship on that day. Harriot made many notes during his time in the

New World, being particularly interested in the language and customs

(particularly the eating habits) of the inhabitants. The object of the

voyage was to colonise the New World but it was not successful in this

aim.

Drake was engaged in sea battles with the Spanish when he learnt that

they intended to prevent the British colonists becoming established.

Although Drake met up with the colonists, in June 1586 there were

severe storms and there was a hurried return to England by Harriot and

most of the party. Harriot, together with Drake's ships, landed at

Portsmouth in July 15...

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Harriot.

He made the observation that if a, b, c are the roots of a cubic then

the cubic is (x - a)(x - b)(x - c) = 0. This is a major step forward

in understanding which Harriot then carried forward to equations of

higher degree.

. Even his work on algebra Artis Analyticae Praxis ad Aequationes

Algebraicas Resolvendas (1631) was published 10 years after his death

and was edited by people who did not fully appreciate the depth of his

work. For example, it does not discuss negative solutions.

REFEReNCES

Books:

J N Crossley, The emergence of number (Singapore, 1980).

J W Shirley, Thomas Harriot : a biography (Oxford, 1983).

J W Shirley (ed.), A Source book for the study of Thomas Harriot (New

York, 1981).

J W Shirley (ed.), Thomas Harriot : renaissance scientist (Oxford,

1974).

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