NavList:

I encountered this phrase recently. Terrestrial navigation to me sounds like navigation over land, but it turns out that people have been using it for years for coastal piloting. In fact, it seems that in some circles this expression has replaced piloting. Any of you all have experience with this? When did you first hear the phrase? Does it apply in limited areas, limited cultures of navigation? I have found references to it in course books from maritime schools starting in the 1970s, but it's new to me. Did it begin in the halls of maritime academia? Has it filtered out to practical navigation? I note that a Google search for the phrase "terrestrial navigation" yields a rather narrow set of hits, and tellingly there is no Wikipedia article for this specific topic, where the traditional term "piloting" is preferred. Is it just fashion? Is the phrase "terrestrial navigation" for piloting another oddity from the USCG?

Frank Reed
ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island