NavList:

I went to sea in 1961 as an indentured deck cadet in British merchant ships. Our navigation training was hands on from the start and developed from that already undergone in our pre-sea nautical colleges. By 1961 time sights were definitely a thing of the past in the School of Navigation (Warsash) and in Royal Mail Lines of London. I suspect that it was completely obsolete elsewhere in British merchant ships, but I am happy to be corrected.

Incidentally, our position lines were invariably obtained using 5-figure logs and the cosine/ haversine formula. For an acceptable, but lesser precision, some of us began to use Burton's 4-figure tables and the cosine/versine alternative, which, with experience and a good pro-forma, was quicker than many so-called short method tables, but obviously not as speedy and convenient as HO 249/AP3270. Azimuths were calculated using ABC tables.

John

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