Maritime navigation

“ In proportion, therefore, as the pursuits of the navigator are considered essential to the wealth of the community, every effort to Assist him, in his course through the pathless ocean, must be regarded both as the call of interest and humanity. The most prominent causes of the perfection to which coasting-navigation has been brought, may be ascribed to the accuracy of our charts, and an increase of land-marks, by which the mariner, after braving the dangers of the seas, is enabled to guide his ship with safety into her intended port. ”

“ He then compares that position with his voyage plan, his operational commitments, and his predetermined “dead reckoning” position. A good navigator anticipates dangerous situations well before they arise, and always stays “ahead of the vessel.” He is ready for navigational emergencies at any time. He is increasingly a manager of a variety of resources--electronic, mechanical, and human. Navigation methods and techniques vary with the type of vessel, the conditions, and the navigator’s experience. ”

“ And, perhaps, we may look forward to a time when, by the command of wind and wave given by the steamboat, and by our increased knowledge of "ocean topography," if we may use the phrase; a ship may make its way across the ocean without ever being out of a current; a result which would be obviously a most important accession, if not to the speed, at least to the security of navigation.
Those ocean traversers evidently belong to a system. Some are permanent, some are periodical, and some are casual. The permanent arise chiefly from the effect of the flow from the poles to the equator. ”

“ Although those fleets were never in reality so powerful as they appeared to contemporary observers, the necessities of Trans-Atlantic voyages and the practice of ocean navigation had given experience to officers and men and improved the build of the ships, so far at anyrate as size and apparent power were concerned. ”

“ The Lead Line
SINCE the coming of the mariners’ compass many centuries ago, navigation has made steady headway. It is now an exact science, and vessels properly equipped with needed instruments and with men able to use them, can, no matter what the winds or seas, or how extended the voyage, be brought safely to their destination.
The instruments used in navigation are, the compass, by which ship’s courses are steered; the sextant by which observations of the sun, moon and stars are taken, and through which the latitude is ascertained ”

“ It is not conceivable that the element of danger can ever be wholly eliminated from the navigation of the Atlantic, but notwithstanding the extent and difficulty of the traffic, and the size and speed of the ships, which, flying to and fro in all kinds of weather, arrive in port at all seasons with a promptness and regularity quite equal to that of express trains on land, the number of accidents in proportion to the number of passengers is constantly diminishing. ”

“ The few ships that we possess are among the fleetest and the most comfortable that traverse the ocean, and have excited the admiration of the world wherever they have been seen. But their number is so small, their service so limited, their field of operation so contracted, that our large commerce and travel are dependent, in most parts of the world, on British steam mail lines for correspondence and transport, or on the slow, irregular, and uncertain communications of sailing vessels. ”

“ Here, however, the facilities for observation of a sea-faring life have been directed towards an object of inquiry, which must prove of immense utility in navigation and commerce. And, perhaps, even landsmen may not find it uninteresting, that even that proverbially fickle element, air, obeys certain fixed laws, a more accurate acquaintance with which must be of the utmost importance to the denizen of terra firma, as well as187 those "that go down to the sea in ships, that do business in great waters." ”

“ The Art And Science Of Navigation Marine navigation blends both science and art. A good navigator constantly thinks strategically, operationally, and tactically. He plans each voyage carefully. As it proceeds, he gathers navigational information from a variety of sources, evaluates this information, and determines his ship’s position. ”

“ Thus the effect of currents and wave motion, and the maintenance of trim and equilibrium are not factors in the successful navigation of the vessel; in fact, navigation becomes surer on the surface, as one is travelling in a medium which does not constantly change like the surface water from the effects of winds, waves, and currents. When the divers desire to leave the vessel they go into the diver’s compartment, located in the forward portion of the ship, and close the door communicating with the living quarters. ”

“ Chose remarquable, et qui s’observe dans plusieurs autres grands ports maritimes, le nombre des navires à voiles est réduit de trois quarts durant la période considérée, alors que l’on voit presque décupler le tonnage des bâtiments à vapeur. C’est donc la navigation rapide qui progresse ; c’est la vitesse qui devient de plus en plus la première et la plus essentielle condition du transport. C’est elle qui dicte les
règles auxquelles doivent satisfaire les installations d’un port. ”

“ Though some are faster than others, the speed and regularity with which all these lines of steamers traverse the Atlantic is very remarkable, and no better illustration could be given than this table of the perfection we have reached in ocean navigation. ”

“ Prior to the introduction of marine steam engines, the United States of America had no inconsiderable share of the world’s ocean traffic. No swifter ships raced with cargoes of tea from China to the Thames than the famous Baltimore clippers. No finer vessels crossed the Atlantic than the celebrated New York Packet Liners. It cannot be supposed that a people so enterprising as the Americans would make no attempt at ocean steam navigation. ”

“ Shallow sand-banks and small rocky islands impede the navigation, and it is a common precaution for ships to cast anchor at the least approach of foul weather, an operation which is the more readily set about that the water is nowhere above twenty fathoms, but good holding ground throughout the straits. ”

“ The methods of navigation employed by mariners are the result of centuries of research and [Pg 94] invention, but have not yet reached finality—witness the introduction within the last few years of the Gyroscopic Compass and the Directional Wireless Telegraph Apparatus, as well as of improved methods of calculation.
In short journeys over land by aëroplane or airship the duties of a navigator are light, so long as he can see the ground and check his progress towards the objective by observation and a suitable map. ”

“ The up-to-date standard—Old-time sailing ships—The clipper packet-ship—Dawn of steam navigation—Denis Papin on the Fulda—Bell’s Comet—Fulton’s Clermont—American river steamers and ferry-boats.
TRAVEL increases in faster ratio than do facilities for inter-communication. The prophecy surely is being fulfilled in these latter days, “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” It is estimated that at least 750,000 persons travel yearly between Europe and America; 99,223 cabin passengers and 252,350 steerage passengers landed at New York from Europe in 1896. ”

“ This extensive inland navigation, open as I have stated it to be, can only be considered traversable to the boats of the country, which are flat bottomed, and do not draw more than four feet of water, when heavily laden. The largest of these carry about seventy-five tons English: science and capital might improve the build of these vessels; but in extending our commerce, or in setting on foot a flotilla, the present model would ever be found most convenient. Vessels of a sharp build are liable to upset when they run aground on the sand-banks. ”

“ Optimum use of navigational systems varies as a function of the type of vessel, the quality of the navigational equipment on board, and the experience and skill of the navigator and all the members of his team.
For the watch officer, ensuring the ship’s safety always takes priority over completing operational commitments and carrying out the ship’s routine. Navigation is his primary responsibility. ”

“ There is no intelligent reason for carrying cargoes slowly under water which might just as well be carried swiftly on the surface unless war compels concealment. Underwater navigation must always be slower and more expensive than surface navigation, nor does it seem probable that the underwater boats can ever equal in size ordinary ships, though undoubtedly their present proportions are going to be greatly increased. ”

“ In the year 1807, a new agent was introduced into the science of navigation,—one which was destined to effect as great a change in the duration of a voyage at sea as the compass had effected in its practicability. Steam was applied to a boat upon the Hudson, and the Clermont, propelled by wheels, steamed from Jersey City to Albany. ”

“ Malo in France to Exeter in England would touch the island of Guernsey. The straight line at sea is not always the one chosen. Steam-vessels, however, have, to a certain extent, a power of following the direct course denied to sailing ships.
The wind in co-operation with the sea is a combination of forces. A ship is a combination of appliances. Forces are machines of infinite power. Machines are forces of limited power. That struggle which we call navigation is between these two organisations, the one inexhaustible, the other intelligent. ”

“ To crown the whole, where can a country be pointed out which possesses such an extent of internal navigation? A chain of river navigation and navigable inland seas, which, with the canals recently constructed, gives to the countries bordering on them all the advantages of an extended sea-coast, with a greatly diminished risk of loss from shipwreck! ”

“ The purposes of the marine of a country whose interests are so inseparably connected as ours are with the improvement of the art of navigation, would be very inadequately fulfilled, if our navigators were merely supplied with the means of determining by Nautical Astronomy the position of a ship at sea. ”

“ We are so accustomed in a sea passage to the constant passing of other vessels that we allow ourselves to imagine that a frequented portion of the ocean, such as the Channel, is thickly dotted over with shipping of some sort. But in entertaining this idea we are forgetful of the fact that we are all the while on a steamer track. The truth, however, is that anywhere outside such a track, even from the commanding point of view of a high-flying balloon, the ocean is seen to be more vast than we suppose, and bears exceedingly little but the restless waves upon its surface. ”

“ Though the old salt may sneer at the freshwater sailor who scarcely need know how to box the compass, to whom the art of navigation is in the main the simple practise of steering from port to port guided by headlands and lights, who is seldom long out of sight of land, and never far from aid, yet the perils of the lakes are quite as real as those which confront the ocean seaman, and the skill and courage necessary for withstanding them quite as great as his. The sailor's greatest safeguard in time of tempest is plenty of searoom. ”

“ But, you pattern of piety, the earthly navigator makes his plans, takes his measures, gives his orders, with a single eye to efficiency; there is nothing useless or purposeless on board; everything is to make navigation easy or possible; but as for the navigator for whom you claim the management of this vast ship, he and his crew show no reason or appropriateness in any of their arrangements; the forestays, as likely as not, are made fast to the stern, and both sheets to the bows; the anchor will be gold, the beak lead, decoration below the water-line, and unsightliness above. ”

“ In the ’thirties steam navigation went ahead by leaps and bounds, and before the ’forties came, a steam-driven vessel—the Great Western—had crossed the Atlantic in 15 days, which was well under the fastest time for sailing ships of her day, and only 2 days over the fastest crossing ever made by a sailing ship. The Red Jacket, a clipper, crossed in 1854 from Sandy Hook to Rock Light in 13 days, 1 hour. ”

“ As my airship plowed ahead the wind fluttered my coat violently, as on the deck of an Atlantic liner, tho in all other respects it is more like river navigation with a steam-boat. It is not at all like sail navigation and all talk about “tacking” is meaningless. Imagine the air current to be a river running 10 miles per hour. If you go against the current, making 20 miles per hour, your net progress will be but 10 miles per hour. ”

“ The practical value of this science is best appreciated by the navigator, who sees in the sun and moon his clock, and in the stars and planets the ready means of learning his latitude and longitude. It is one of the first tasks of the midshipman to become familiar with the use of the sextant, by which he works out the problem of ascertaining the exact place of the ship upon the ocean. Navigation is helpless without the assistance of astronomy. ”

“ She is a hundred times safer than any of those boats. I have had a great deal of experience in regard to vessels and ocean navigation, and it will be a long time before this vessel sinks, if she ever sinks of her own accord. She's just as likely to float as that derelict we ran into. ”

“ To-day marine navigation has taken the form we see in the giant vessels that ply between this country and Europe and the first-class battle ships of the world's great navies, with their triple expansion engines, their wonderfully perfected boilers, their twin screws, and their infinitely multiplied appliances for safety and efficiency. ”