TIGHAR
Amelia Earhart Search Forum => General discussion => Topic started by: Joe Cerniglia on August 12, 2018, 09:35:21 AM
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I stated in a post yesterday that Nina Paxton's reporting of a latitude and longitude was "the only instance of map coordinates in the form of a possible latitude and longitude having been provided by a listener." I stand twice corrected. An unknown listener in Peru stated at an unknown time on July 10 that he heard Earhart say her position was "23 grados al oeste de la isla de Howland" (23 degrees west of Howland). The statement makes no sense and would be a distance of 1400 miles from Howland. His report is judged "not credible."
Then there is Ray Havens. Mr. Havens was also judged to be "not credible" in the radio signal catalog, mostly for low probability of signal reception at the time of day he listened. Havens also stated a latitude and longitude, the same coordinates that Nina Paxton stated on the undated typewritten page, titled The Call of a Courageous Lady, that the archival website grouped incorrectly with Paxton's July 30, 1937 letter to Walter Winchell. Mr. Havens, however, provided compass direction points, giving the position as 173 west longitude and 5 south latitude, whereas Mrs. Paxton provided only the numerical components of the coordinates. There exists a previous forum thread about Mr. Havens here:
https://tighar.org/smf/index.php?topic=1489.0
The possibility exists that Mrs. Paxton cribbed her coordinates from the many contemporaneous news (https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=pVIfAAAAIBAJ&sjid=J9IEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2178%2C945762) accounts that were circulating about Ray Havens' reception in the days following Earhart's disappearance.
The correlation between the two accounts of Havens and Paxton is one of those coincidences that had to be mentioned, with the appropriate caveats, as having received a passing glance. It would be really nice to have a third mention of these coordinates in a reception of higher credibility. Thelma Lovelace and Mabel Larremore came close but didn't save the documents in which they wrote the coordinates down.
The key point is not only that the coordinates Ray Havens and Nina Paxton stated align with each other but also that they align with Nikumaroro. Position 173W, 5S is 107 statute miles ESE of that island.
Joe Cerniglia
TIGHAR #3078R