Ship Handling & Navigation

The main objective of the present publication at the time of its release was to acquaint students with the major rules and most common problem in marine navigation. It was expected to be of the practical use when carrying out their day to day activities on board vessels. The theory of navigation is presented using the short definitions. The whole experience of the author has been reflected in the pages of this volume.

Numerous problems of navigation have been covered. One of the remarkable features of this book is that the author made every effort to avoid digging too deep into the theory so that the reading and understanding the subject is easier to the people with no background. All of the terminology used in navigation has been covered and explained in detailed.

Moreover, the information has been presented in the way making it very reader-friendly – each of the articles deals with some particular topic. For example, there are articles on compass adjustments, ship’s business, arithmetic of navigation and o many others. This approach used by the author guaranteed the popularity to this book and this is the main reason why it is still used today, more than one century after it had been first published.

When we thing about the number of the good titles devoted to the problem of marine navigation, available today, it appears that most of them are discussing the subject from the more or less same angle. In fact, the ultimate aim of the authors of most of them is to give readers some essential instructions. This book, in contrast, was prepared for those who carry put their work by rote and would like to know more about the basic reason and foundations of what they deal with during their day today activities.

It will also be great for the people willing to extend their knowledge horizons. Many of the points covered in the pages of this volume, have been intentionally repeated, as desired by the author, who wanted to closely follow his line of thought. Such an approach was aimed to let people understand the material easier. In fact, the book was supposed to serve as a supplement to the well known American Practical Navigator publication, but it will also be useful when used separately, as a textbook.

This one used to be very popular book one century back and the contents is still actual and interesting to all future navigators as well as to the practicing professionals wanting to get better and deeper understanding of the subject.

One of the oldest volumes available here. The book is devoted to the application of the science of trigonometry to the marine navigation. Note, however,, that regardless of the title of this publication, the readers are not actually expected to be excessively proficient in the trigonometry or mathematics. Every effort was made by the author to present the subject in the maximum intelligible manner.

The content of the book is arranged in four big sections, starting with the section on plane trigonometry covering the functions of acute angles, goniometry, right triangle, oblique triangle plus numerous examples and tables. The second section covers the spherical trigonometry together with all its application.

The third section of the book deals with the surveying matters, particularly triangulation, land surveying, levelling etc. finally, the closing section of the publication addresses the navigation, including the sailings and nautical astronomy, and all definitions normally used in the field. The book will be of particular interest to the collectors of the ancient books on marine navigation and to all those willing to know more about the underlying concepts of the navigation.

The present publication can be used as a supplementary training material for the students of marine navigation. All of the information contained in the pages of this volume have been carefully selected and duly arranged. The book starts with the list or recommended abbreviations and terminology commonly used in the field of navigation. Then, the first section of the main part of the book is dealing with the terrestrial references including equator, geographic poles, meridians, parallels etc.

After that, three chapters come addressing the celestial references, figure drawing for the astronomical calculations and preliminary calculations. The use of the traverse tables has been discussed within a separate chapter and same applies to the Mercator chart. Note that there are numerous exercises included by the author to facilitate good understanding of the subject. The correction of the latitude has been described from both theoretical and practical point of view.

Among the important topics covered by the author there are also chronometer time, theory of astronomical position lines, graphical combination of sights and so many others. There are also worked examples added to the text part of the book.

To all newcomers to the world of the marine navigation, it usually seems as a sort of magic, incorporating countless data tables, formulas and strange names. Many people working on board ships as navigators have quite limited knowledge of mathematics and that is the fact. However, the navigation by its nature is rather mathematical subject and this is the way it should be actually taught.

Moreover, this is why a good understanding of mathematical concepts shall be possessed by all navigators. Note, however, that the author of this book did not o too deep into the aspects of trigonometry or spherical geometry under assumption that these could be avoided. The book is quite compact so it will not take too much of your time to address every single chapter of it, but the benefit offered by the contents are really good.

Taking into account that the mathematical foundations of the science of marine navigation remain unchanged, we do encourage all people involved in handling marine vessel to pay close attention to the information presented in the pages of this volume. It will also be interesting to the practicing mariners including those using the electronic navigation means – it is always good to know the essentials.

The marine navigators of all times and all nations always relied on the stars when navigating their vessels. Thanks to the numerous technical innovations that took place recently, the newer and more and more reliable ways of charting the course of the ships. However, the celestial navigation remains essential and unfailing option. That is why the training of any marine navigators cannot be considered complete without the celestial navigation techniques having been covered in detail.

This volume written by two professional captains will provide the readers with the main underlying technical principles of the celestial navigation in a very accessible way. Note that even the absolute beginners to the world of marine navigation will benefit from the content of the book due to the clear explanations and examples provided by the authors. More than two hundred informative sketches have been included in order to illustrate the text together with the examples.

Numerous problems supplemented with the solutions and comments are there to facilitate better understanding of the theory. It is a really easy and comfortable reading for all students and of course practicing navigators. Fifteen chapters of the publication will provide them with literally all information they need to be aware of to start navigating their vessels.

This is a great reference and one of the most popular and successful books on seamanship. Most of the fundamental knowledge can be obtained from this brilliant book, presented in a clear and understandable format. The contents of the volume will help trainees preparing for their officer of the watch examinations. It is mainly a collection of the carefully selected crib sheet containing the essential information specifically designed to help students and cadets jog their memory.

The practicing mariners, in turn, will benefit from the bullet point style format of the volume. There are three main sections in the book. The first section deals with the navigation, covering all relevant topics from voyage planning and up to the heavy weather sailing.

The second section of the book addresses the response to emergencies, including actions to be taken in the event of collision, flooding and grounding incidents, equipment in use, pyrotechnics, lifesaving appliances and everything else you will need to be aware of in such cases. The closing section covers the shipboard operations including all associated regulatory framework, such as the ISM and ISPS Codes, MARPOL and STCW Conventions, IALA buoyage systems etc.

The writing of this publication was entrusted to one of the prominent sea people of the past times, Commander Hepworth who put the whole treasure of his experience in the pages of this book in order to help the mariners of the future cover their practical demands in connection with the study of weather as applied to marine navigation.

There were several objectives, and one of them was to supply the seafaring community with the trustworthy information and knowledge about the weather, that could be used in any part of the world so that all seafarers could know what can be expected of the weather and use this knowledge for provision of the safety of their vessels. The author also wanted to enable the mariners to make the weather conditions favorable through making correct choice of the planned route, timing of the intended voyage and setting the course.

Another aim of the publication was to enable the mariners to make the best they could from the bad weather, i.e. make them duly prepared to any weather that they will experience throughout their professional life, when sailing on board different ships and in different parts of the world – needless to say that such preparation is of utmost importance.