Some Obscurish facts
#629
For nearly 20 years the naval garrison of the Ile de France (today's Mauritius) watched the colony's beacon keeper demonstrate an art he called nauscopie. M. Bottineau would scan the horizon with his naked eye--he never used a telescope--and then announce: 'Three vessels approaching--two from the south, one from southwest!' No one present could see anything but sky and water. Yet within two to seven days, the exact number of ships predicted would appear from the directions indicated. Bottineau was never wrong. Some-how he 'sighted' ships which turned out to have been several hundred miles distant. In 1784 the beacon keeper sailed to France to sell the secret to the government. He arrived at a time when the monarchy was almost bankrupt. The Ministry of Marine wouldn't even make him an offer. The French Revolution came five years later and swept Bottineau and nauscopie into oblivion. He died in total obscurity, leaving no written records. If the French navy had paid Bottineau's price and adopted his technique, France would have won the Battle of Trafalgar and Napoleon would have conquered England, because Nelson could never have surprised a French battle fleet.
For nearly 20 years the naval garrison of the Ile de France (today's Mauritius) watched the colony's beacon keeper demonstrate an art he called nauscopie. M. Bottineau would scan the horizon with his naked eye--he never used a telescope--and then announce: 'Three vessels approaching--two from the south, one from southwest!' No one present could see anything but sky and water. Yet within two to seven days, the exact number of ships predicted would appear from the directions indicated. Bottineau was never wrong. Some-how he 'sighted' ships which turned out to have been several hundred miles distant. In 1784 the beacon keeper sailed to France to sell the secret to the government. He arrived at a time when the monarchy was almost bankrupt. The Ministry of Marine wouldn't even make him an offer. The French Revolution came five years later and swept Bottineau and nauscopie into oblivion. He died in total obscurity, leaving no written records. If the French navy had paid Bottineau's price and adopted his technique, France would have won the Battle of Trafalgar and Napoleon would have conquered England, because Nelson could never have surprised a French battle fleet.