An Elizabethan Compass Maker

Extract

As between the scholar and the technician, the armchair theorist and the practical man, the antagonism is as old as civilization itself. In Queen Elizabeth's days the gentleman born was the only gentleman, however ignorant, while learning was the preserve of the universities; the practical man was a mere ‘mechanician’. But there was some liberal thinking, common-sense thinking, even in those days, and one Gabriel Harvey, a well-known literary man and controversialist, spoke up boldly for the technicians. Even though they had heard no university lectures, he said, and were deficient in book-learning, it would be a bold man who would despise such expert practitioners as Humfrey Cole, the mathematical instrument maker, William Bourne, the naval gunner, Matthew Baker, the shipwright, John Shute, the architect, John Hester, the chemist, and Robert Norman, the hydrographer and compass maker. No fewer than four out of the six notable men he named were doing work that was relevant to the advancement of the navy and navigation. They were at the height of their powers in the decade preceding the defeat of the Spanish Armada, a coincidence which cannot be without significance.