Product Details

• Actors: Neil Ross, Liev Schreiber, Jay O. Sanders, Will Lyman, Stacy Keach
• Writers: Mark Davis, Mark Hobson
• Producers: D.J. Roller, John Angier
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Wgbh Boston
• VHS Release Date: March 28, 2000
• Run Time: 60 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 1578071305
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #27,028 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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  #2 in	Video > Television > WGBH Boston > Nova > History
  #86 in	Video > Documentary > History > World History & Culture

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
How did they make long ocean voyages before satellite tracking? Mostly by sheer luck and guesswork, until a secure method for establishing position by the stars was discovered. NOVA traces the roots of this discovery in Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude, showing how one unschooled carpenter, John Harrison, proved the best minds of his generation (including Sir Isaac Newton) wrong by building a clock accurate enough to keep time on the high seas. This was all that was needed to accurately track one's position, locking in England as the dominant naval power for years thereafter. Dramatic re-creations, interviews, and demonstrations of antique naval instruments add up to a spellbinding hour as the story of longitude unfolds before our eyes. --Rob Lightner

Product Description
Navigation in the 1700s was both unpredictable and deadly, until one man solved the mystery. Richard Dreyfuss narrates the riveting story of a humble, ingenious country carpenter named John Harrison who discovered that the secret to navigation lay not just in the stars, but in the mastering of time. Climb aboard an authentic tall ship and go back in time to see history, and the quest for longitude, unfold.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, that is how they did it., July 23, 2004

By	G. McCall (Austin, TX) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is a well done documentary that is a hybrid of drama with historical fact. Having some of the characters simply speak from their journals sounds unrealistic at times (spoken vs written word) but the technical details are interesting. I watched it to understand the history of navigation and answer some questions about how they performed navigation with various tools. The interesting part of this is how there was a serious political issue involved, in that the scientists of the day insisted that celestial navigation was considered the only reliable method. Well worth viewing to any who are interesting in the history of navigation, clocks, and science vs politics.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great documentary, August 3, 2004

By	Pilot (Chicago) - See all my reviews

Based on the bestselling book Longitude by Dava Sobel, the program tells the story of how an unknown genius, John Harrison, discovered the key to navigating on the open seas and thus solved one of the thorniest problems of the 1700s.