When did a method for using longitude become standard practice for naval navigation? How was this method propagated across ships, navies, merchants, and countries?

by BananaFrappe

I am watching the TV series Black Sails, a "prequel" to the novel Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson. The show takes place in 1715.

  • How did the sailing ships navigate the Caribbean so effectively in that time?

  • It is my understanding that naval chronometers did not become widely used for well over a hundred more years. So, how did they do it prior to naval chronometers? Did they use longitude at all?

  • When naval chronometers were finally invented and found to be effective, how did this technology spread from the British navy to British merchant fleets and then to other countries? How long did this take for it to become standard practice?

jschooltiger

Not to discourage further answers, but I wrote about "the discovery of the longitude" here before: https://amp.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3qw247/its_1785_im_the_captain_of_a_british_frigate_in/?