Navigation & Seamanship

Here is a very rare book, one of those perfectly written textbooks on marine navigation that were used in the past. The book was published more than a century ago, back in 1912. However, the material will still be considered useful to the people willing to understand the theoretical basics of the navigation.

Of course, considering the technological advances that took place since the time of the original release of the volume, it cannot cover most of the modern hi-tech means of navigation. However, as we all know, the essentials of navigation remained unchanged and to this effect the publication can still be used. Moreover, it will be a great one for the people collecting the marine books of the past times.

Note that the content of the publication was officially digitized by Google and the appearance is now next to perfect, making reading much more pleasant. In short, we do recommend this excellent textbook on marine navigation not only to the professional mariners but only to the students who can find useful materials presented in a very original and easy to read manner. This is a definitely must-have publication in the library of every single mariner and you are encouraged to get it.

This classic book was written in the early twentieth century with the intention of the author to provide people willing to study navigation science with a good textbook they could you when preparing for their examinations. The information is presented in a very simple and easily understandable manner so this volume can be used by the beginner level students.

Note that the students are not expected to have a deep knowledge of mathematics, just simple arithmetic would be sufficient to understand the material presented in the pages of this book. Of course it shall be noted that no important information has been omitted. Numerous examples have been added by the author to illustrate the computation methods covered by the author.

The volume opens with the description of the major instruments commonly used in marine navigation, the compass and nautical charts, then we proceed to the piloting techniques and navigation tools, in fact all aspects have been covered. This is a very good textbook for the collection of any person with the deep interest in marine navigation and historical books on the subject, as the publication is very rare and you one can hardly find the book in any of the book shops today.

This is definitely one of the oldest, if not the oldest, publication available here. A pure classics published in 1876 and a treasure for the collectors of the old marine books. The book was written by the prominent marine navigator of the past times. This is the third edition of the book in which he adapted the navigational rules to the navigation tables which were in use at the time of the publishing, and also addressed the other tables, such as the Norie's Nautical Tables.

This was done to assist students in working out numerous examples that have been included in this volume - such approach let them avoid any difficulties. The arrangement of the material applied in this book is pretty much standard for all marine navigation books. The volume opens with the sections explaining the basic definitions and Mercator’s Chart as this information is considered essential prior to proceeding to the main content.

Such important topics as trigonometrical ratios, correction of courses, proper use of the compass, finding courses and distances by nautical chart, fundamental formulas of marine navigation, and so many others have all been covered in detail. The topics are explained in a very understandable way. As we mentioned above, there are many examples included to facilitate better and easier understanding of the material.

This classic work on marine navigation is actually intended to be used by the people with little mathematical training willing to get necessary qualification in the area. The author of the book has presented the material in a form easily understandable even to the newcomers and students. Every effort has been made to avoid complex mathematical exercises and abstractions normally having no real practical use to the navigators.

The text part of the volume is supplemented with numerous useful and informative data diagrams and graphical explanations for better understanding of the subject. Though the publication is quite compact in size, its content covers all important aspects of marine navigation. The topics addressed in the volume include the compass and dead reckoning, time and piloting, the sextant and correction of the altitude, explanation of the latitude, longitude from the stars and the Sun, position lines and other information.

The volume has already proven effective through the good feedbacks by several generations of the readers, noting that it was released more than a century ago. However, its content is still valid as it bases on the theoretical knowledge therefore retaining its value for the students.

The present publication is devoted to the celestial navigation and its use in the modern marine navigation. The content of the publication will tell readers about the concepts of celestial navigation - the author tried to convey them in clear and understandable manner. Most of the activities explained in the pages of this nice volume would only require a scientific calculator – and there will be no need for any other equipment and appliances.

The book will move readers towards better understanding of all principles of celestial navigation including different ways of plotting lines of positions, checking the sextant and many other things. According to the reviews, this is one of the best books on celestial navigation but our visitors may wish to compare it with such titles as the Celestial Navigation for Sailors, Celestial Navigation for Yachtsmen or A Short Guide to Celestial Navigation.

The main advantage that this book offers is an excellent balance between theory and practice maintained by the author. In fact the author of the book succeeded where the most of his predecessors failed - he provided clear explanations of why exactly the practical steps described in the book, work.

Another piece of classics - this publication on navigation was released more than a hundred years ago. For so many years the content of the book helped the newcomers to the world of maritime navigation to obtain necessary knowledge and it was also used by the professional navigators to refresh and maintain their knowledge at the high level. The volume starts with the basic definitions used in navigation.

Then the author moves to the marine compass, correction of the ship's course and log line, explaining them in detail. In the next chapter the construction of the traverse table is described together with its correct use supplemented with the examples for better understanding. The next three chapters cover the methods that are used to fix the position of the vessel on the nautical chart, composite and great circle sailing, and construction of figures.

This was just the introduction. The material of the volume is arranged in twenty-eight chapters plus numerous examples, nautical almanac and answers to the above mentioned examples. You will find lots of useful information still useful and practical today for provision of safe navigation of your ship – literally everything is covered.

Even though there are so many good works on Navigation available today, the present publication has been serving as a textbook for several generations of mariners. This is a true classics and the contribution of this book to the provision of safety of marine navigation is great. The volume was published one century ago but the content is still interesting to the mariners of today due to the way the information is presented.

The book opens with the description of basic navigational instruments, mile and knot, and the mariner's compass together with some interesting facts on its construction and usage. The other navigational tools such as the sextant and marine chronometer have also been explained in detail making them easily to understand even to the newcomers to the magic world of navigation. The nautical charts have been dealt with including chart and map projections, Admiralty charts and all information normally conveyed by the charts.

The other sections of this publication address such important aspects as sounding machines, sounding logs, binoculars and telescope used at sea, ocean meteorology, time and position, summer lines and double altitudes, compass adjustment and so many others - the list is really impressive.

Here is one of the most popular books on celestial navigation which will be particularly appreciated by the yachtsmen. The content will provide you with the remarkably definitive guidance to the navigation including both theory and practice, and the information is presented in a very concise and clear way. In fact, this is a classic primer. The book may also be used as an excellent refresher for those who had studied celestial navigation in the past.

However, it can also be used as a stand-alone training resource since it provides full explanations of everything required. According to the numerous readers’ reviews from all around the world, this publication is a sort of model of clarity and simplicity. The use of the mathematics has been reduced to a minimum to make understanding of the material easier.

We all understand that the use of celestial navigation remains the basic lifesaving emergency skill even in today’s world of electronic navigation aids. That is why it is recommended to all navigators to possess such knowledge before they start sailing – you never know when the things can go wrong so why do not you get prepared to a worst case scenario and provide the safety of your vessel at all times.