What does it mean to sail by log lead and lookout?

Answer 1

Log, lead, and lookout was one of the favored methods of navigation at sea during and before the U.S. Revolution. The log was a small wooden piece that would be thrown overboard and attached to a rope with equidistant knots (thus the speed term knots). The number o knots that were used up as the log traveled in a given time was the speed of the ship. The lead was a piece of metal at the bottom of a rope that would be cast overboard when close to shore to look at the material of or distance to the sea bed. This would allow whoever was navigating to find where they were with both depth and a map. The lookout is fairly obvious; he would be the man up in the crow's nest calling out anything important that he saw. Log lead an lookout was a fairly efficient way to sail even the largest of ships.