NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: sextant without paper charts
From: Bruce Hamilton
Date: 2008 Oct 31, 18:13 -0700
From: Bruce Hamilton
Date: 2008 Oct 31, 18:13 -0700
Navigation without paper charts probably contributed the the sinking of The Queen of the North here in British Columbia. It ran aground because the bridge crew did not know where they were, and they were in restricted waters in a 3 mile channel. Can any of you even imagine being so out of touch! I doubt it. I have seen very drunk Captains with much more sense than that. Without having to plot fixes every 15 minutes there is a tendency for bridge crew to rely solely on the information on the screen and not be aware of where they actually are. I have a friend who is a merchant captain who still has standing orders for the mates plot a position on the paper chart every 15 minutes by some method other than GPS. If you are in within a few miles of land, then then this is really essential in a big ship. Our eyes and brains are the best navigational tools that we possess, and the they don't even require electricity. I spent 2 years on 730 foot freighters going through the great lakes. If any of you have ever been through the St. Lawrence Seaway on a boat, just try to imagine what it is like on a ship. The mates and masters who do the piloting just know where they are by looking out the windows. One comany pilot I worked with used to show me how to do the river without the buoys using only natural landmarks. Quite impressive. There is no doubt that GPS is a great aid and saves countless hours on the hook waiting for the fog to clear out of such places as the American Narrows. I had a captain who ran a ship around there in the pre-GPS days. He was half way through and the fog came in. The new short range radar had too much clutter to see properly so he had to guess about when to make a turn. He had been trying to get the radar fixed for several weeks, but the office thought it was OK to run without it. There is never any bad weather or fog in the office is there! :-) In that case, the GPS would have prevented the accident. Keep a good watch. Bruce Hamilton Vancouver, BC. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Navigation List archive: www.fer3.com/arc To post, email NavList@fer3.com To , email NavList-@fer3.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
