Ship Handling & Navigation

The ultimate purpose of the present guide developed and released by The Standard Guide and belonging to the Master's Guide series, was to list, in a simple and easily understandable terms, all actions that shall be taken by the Master of the ship when there is a problem or an accident that may potentially result in claims against the ship manager or owner.

The document is actually concerned only with the P&I, i.e. Protection and Indemnity risks; it contains the advice and instructions on how the owner's interests can be protected after the problem has arisen. Please not that this paper is not intended to replace in any way any standing instructions on the ship accidents, any emergency response procedures or reporting procedures established by your company.

The booklet starts with the Basic Advice chapter giving quite clear advice on what shall and what shall not be done, with the content arranged in two columns - Always and Never. The document provides advice for avoidance of the ship accidents, proper collection of the evidence, bills of lading, pollution, property damage, ship security and stowaways, general average and many other aspect commonly associated with the accident response.

At the turn of the XXI century the Southward movement of oil exploration across the Mississippi delta made the eventual search for hydrocarbons under the sea inevitable, and in 1923 the first offshore exploration took place off the coast of Louisiana state. The drilling derricks were set on platforms which in turn were supported by the piles that were driven into the mud of the Mississippi delta.

And, it was not long before subject structures were erected just off the shore, and by 1930 the oil companies were using derricks mounted on barges which were sunk to the seabed on the location. The supply vessel as a ship type is unique in that it did not develop from any other sort of craft, except that in common with all other ships it has a hull, engines and a bridge...

This book written by Captain Vic Gibson is dedicated to the operations performed by the offshore supply vessels. It starts with the historical overview o the development of the supply ships and requirements applicable to them, followed by the chapters addressing the oil fields and drilling rigs, ship handling and moving of the semi-submersible and jack-up, i.e. self-elevating offshore drilling rigs, special offshore activities, towing and cargo transportation, standing by and emergency services, etc. A very useful book for all people engaged in the offshore supply activities.

This publication was released to continue the remarkable series including such titles as the first one - Marine Navigation and Safety of Sea Transportation, followed with the STCW Maritime Education and Training, Maritime Transport and Shipping, Navigation Problems, Miscellaneous Problems in Marine Navigation, International Recent Issues About ECDIS, E-Navigation and Safety at Sea, Methods and Algorithms and Navigation, Activities in Navigation, and Transport Systems and Processes.

The volume will give readers, deeply interested in the modern maritime industry, a truly professional insight and perfectly compiled knowledge about the information, communication and environment. The material is arranged in seven parts, starting with the maritime communications and decision support systems, followed with the chapters dealing with the geo-information systems and maritime spatial planning and providing coverage of the major hydrometeorological aspects.

The inland shipping is discussed in the separate chapter. The sixth part addresses the maritime pollution and protection of the environment while the closing part tells us about the VTS, standing for the vessel traffic service.

The voyage planning process can be treated as a sort of evolution from the old-school penciling of the proposed route on a nautical chart to a really high quality and technological process including the proper risk assessment. The marine navigators of today have to filter, analyze, correctly interpret and also do good and thorough evaluation of the huge amount of data used for the ship voyage planning.

Of course, when doing so, due care shall be taken of the compliance with the applicable regulatory framework. The recent introduction of the electronic charts followed same approach, allowing the mariners to filter the nautical chart data and adapt it to such extent that would allow only the relevant information to be displayed, meaning the voyage-specific information directly relating to the particular vessel. In the meantime, proper attention shall be paid to the handing of the information.

When compared to the traditional paper nautical charts, this approach will require a fully reworked mindset forming some challenges to the navigators today. What it means is that the navigators shall be able to properly adapt the routines of the duly trained craftsmanship on the charts in order to ensure that the subject challenge is met.

This classic publication was originally designed to be used by the officers of naval militia as well as by the yachtsmen and all future mariners and it did gain the success and popularity among all professionals of the coast services in many countries of the world. Every effort was made by the author to keep the size of the book compact to make it convenient for the everyday use.

However, it contains all information about the practical navigation you may need. The book was published long time ago and managed to stand the test of more than a century. Note that despite the year of original release, the material presented in the publication is still valid and useful since the basics of the marine navigation have not changed – of course, the latest technological advances in the field of navigational equipment could not be covered, by the essentials remained same.

The instructions prepared by the author are as concise as possible but the clearness of the explanations is still there, making the contents understandable to all categories of readers. The use of high mathematics has been avoided wherever possible and this is another reason why the publication can be recommended to the broader readership.

This compact booklet was prepared to provide readers with the absolutely basic information about the celestial navigation. In fact, we can say that the essential principles of the subject science are quite simple. Of course, when it comes to the more detailed calculations, you will have to apply good mathematics.

The document shall be used to get some understanding of the calculations and should be used by the people making their first steps in the celestial navigation. Note that it is based on the celestial mechanics, which is a pretty precise. What it means is that it will be possible to precisely determine the location of the bodies at any given time. Well, and once you know the star position, and make other measurements using the ship’s sextant – it will be sufficient to determine the coordinates, i.e. longitude and latitude of your position.

Of course, one should not treat the present publication as a textbook of celestial navigation, but it will still give reader some idea of what it is. Take some time going through the pages; as you can see, it will only require not more than one hour to read it from the beginning to the end, and you will definitely get to know something new and apply it whenever needed.

The present volume was released with the intention of the authors to cover the knowledge requirements for the certificate of competency. It opens with such basic topics as the courses, position lines, the Earth, relevant formulae, nautical charts, sailings, and the associated navigation tools including sextant. Then the readers will proceed to the altitudes definitions and corrections, followed by the useful information on the stereographic projection.

The Earth-Moon system and Solar system have been covered in detail. Apart from that, the attention was paid by the authors, who are two professional sea captains, to the star recognition and great circles, ex-meridians, tidal theory, stars and star identity, composite great circles, latitude by Pole Star, and many other topics – it is very important for the ship navigators to have sound understanding of the theory of the celestial navigation.

There are many exercises included for tracking the learning process, and all of them have been provided with the answers, making a book good even for studying at home. Even today, in a world of electronic navigation means, the navigators should still be familiar with the basics of the celestial navigation.

The present publication is another classic work on the naval architecture. It was released more than a century ago to meet the special training requirements of the Merchant Marine officers as well as to serve as the all-covering textbook for the general students. All of them will definitely find everything they need when preparing for their examination; moreover, the information included by the author, will be of both theoretical and practical interest to the practicing mariners.

Each of the chapters in this book is devoted to the specific problem that is analyzed and explained in detail. The proofs related to the corresponding problem are included and this approach makes the learning process easier for the reader. All necessary astronomical rules have been covered and supplemented with the examples.

Of course, one should consider the age of the book but understand that the theoretical essentials of the thing remain unchanged and having a good knowledge of them will be beneficial to any navigator. The book also embodies the necessary elements from the Nautical Almanac. The trigonometry aspects have also been dealt with allowing students to get acquainted with the construction of the plane and spherical triangles.