NavList:

Doug, you wrote:
"Does anyone know what methods of navigation they used in the 20's? 30's? etc. Was CN used? Was it Radio Direction Finding prior to Loran etc?"

I don't have any primary source info on this, but here's a few random thoughts: in weather good enough for celestial, one is rarely completely out of sight of land on the Great Lakes, at least not so long that dead reckoning wouldn't yield excellent results. So these are really "piloting waters". You take bearings off lights, towers on shore, and other coastal features. Currents and tides on the lakes are near zero, so again, dead reckoning works very well. In addition, since the main routes are heavily travelled, the big risk is not losing your position, but collision. So you've got to have eyes out there no matter what. There were, of course, navigators who experimented with celestial on the Great Lakes (I've read a few accounts of such), but it's highly unlikely that it was ever a primary form of navigation on any vessel on the Great Lakes.

I can highly recommend the "Wisconsin Maritime Museum" if you haven't visited. Though there's not much on navigation, per se, it has wonderful exhibits on Great Lakes shipping from the earliest period. And it also has a terrific submarine (they built submarines in Wisconsin during the Second World War). The Wisconsin Maritime Museum is located in Manitowoc which also has the last (?) ferry service across to the Michigan side, so that could make a wonderful "nautical" vacation. I posted a review of the museum four years ago here:
http://fer3.com/arc/m2.aspx/Wisconsin-Maritime-Museum-FrankReed-nov-2009-g10513.
That includes a number of photos that I took including one of their little navigation exhibit. I closed with "Highly recommended. Grade A. Five stars."

-FER

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