Passage Most maps from the fifteenth century have precise latitudes but distorted longitudes. The reason is that
map-makers
, who needed to know the exact time in order to measure longitude, were forced to depend on
notoriously unreliable shipboard clocks. Sea captains, who needed longitude calculations in order to
navigate their ships in open water, were also dependent on these inaccurate clocks. Pendulum clocks
might have been the solution, as they were the best timekeepers on land, but the rolling of a ship at sea
made gravity-based pendulums useless,
Question
The passage implies that fifteenth century map-makers spent much of their time
studying old maps in libraries
making calculations at sea
wiking along sastines
repairing broken docks