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Captain Edgar Barron cursed his luck. His ship the Noble, in the North Pacific between Hawaii and Japan, was in the grip of a vicious storm. He had hoped to make landfall at Hekili before this, but they had encountered doldrums last month which delayed their journey significantly.

He had eagerly read and re-read Edmund Halley’s 1715 publication on the Moon’s Eclipse of the Sun, and the path of that shadow was to pass over these seas today, 25 May 1770. Had they made Hekili island as scheduled, he could have witnessed the eclipse first hand, or rather second, since it was known to be dangerous to view the event directly.

Now the Noble was taking on water, her main mast was cracked and threatening to break, and her sails were in tatters.

“Captain, she can’t take this much punishment forever. I’m afraid it’s Davy Jones Locker for the lot of us, God have mercy.”

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