Charles Babbage from the Beginning

As a teenager Charles lived with his parents in Teignmouth in Devon over-looking the sea. He owned a yacht in the harbour and had recently studied navigation and knew the calculations being used to get the ships in and out of the port were appallingly inaccurate.

On board every ship was a person called the computer who was responsible for calculating tide times, wind speed and the ships draft, laden or ballast also the ships position? Charles wrote what a breakthrough the corrections of thes...