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29th July 2021, 02:40 PM
#11
Re: Interesting for the navigators
I recall an instance of a coaster running aground during the 1960's I think, when the second mate took the blame. His excuse was that he was listening to 'House Wives Choice" on the radio and forgot to navigate! Why not, the music requested was always very good!
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29th July 2021, 03:25 PM
#12
Re: Interesting for the navigators
There’s always someone at fault in anything going wrong either ashore or afloat. JS
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29th July 2021, 03:38 PM
#13
Re: Interesting for the navigators
Originally Posted by
John T Morgan
I recall an instance of a coaster running aground during the 1960's I think, when the second mate took the blame. His excuse was that he was listening to 'House Wives Choice" on the radio and forgot to navigate! Why not, the music requested was always very good!
(Imagine......Hmm-mm) Master-rushing to Wheelhouse," Bluddy Hell Mr.Mate! Where are We? Do you know you've put us half a mile into the Goodwin Sands ?!"
"No Skip,but HouseWives Choice is On and if you're lucky they might play it sometime!"Listen.gif
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29th July 2021, 03:39 PM
#14
Re: Interesting for the navigators
I saw that article by the First Sea Lord on a Facebook page.
As regards the Stena Bulk tanker that got lured into Iranian waters and then boarded and held by Iranian guards after Iran fed false GPS signals, apparently that is easy to do, you have to ask yourself just what the bridge officers were doing relying solely on GPS for navigation and not using radar and visual bearings to cross check the GPS with.
By the time I had finished sailing we were paperless sailing north Europe down to North Africa and the Mediterranean yet all my deck officers, Latvian and Filipino would regularly use visual bearings and radar ranges to plot the position on the ecdis as a check against the displayed GPS position. Company SMS remanded that all available means we're used the check the vessels position at all times. Despite being what many would think my ships were coasters, the owners placed a sextant on board along with sight reduction tables and plotting sheets and the SMS required the deck officers to practice the use of the sextant whenever possible.!
Celestial navigation is still part of the STCW certificate structure and the U.S. navy reintroduced into their training requirements a few years back.
ELoran was a USA development that gave an accuracy of less than 10 miles world wide but it was discontinued in around 2010? But there is talk of resurrection of it to provide a reliable backup in the event of GPS outage.
Rgds
J.A.
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29th July 2021, 04:02 PM
#15
Re: Interesting for the navigators
J Arton # 16. That''s really good to hear John about more up to date experiences and practices than mine (I left in 1990).Let's hope certain practices are still being taught today then. I can well understand and hope that ,shall I say 'foreign' nationals would be competent at Radar Plotting ,Observation and ECDIS, but I am a bit bemused to think of say Mr.Filipino practising his horizontal sextant angles or working out a sight reduction.Yes,I know that most Filipinos are good seamen ,it's just beyond my imagination to think they would actually teach that in a Filipino nautical college.Perhaps I'm just getting too old !
Last edited by Graham Shaw; 29th July 2021 at 04:04 PM.
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29th July 2021, 04:19 PM
#16
Re: Interesting for the navigators
Thanks for clarifying that J Arton, still cannot figure why it did not download. My eldest lad is a computer security scientist, he has his own business, and started off with car security systems, then on to farm machinery which is a soft target for hacking by thieves. he is now working with the USA military on their security systems in their tanks etc. it seems a number of military vehicles systems with sat nav were hacked in to in Afganistan. We certainly depend on sat nav in many scenarios , kt
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30th July 2021, 12:21 AM
#17
Re: Interesting for the navigators
#15.. query re. Plotting sheets ? Are these for a running fix using the sun say ? If so I never saw or used on a ship for the 6 years I did as 3 and 2 mate. Believe have put on here before that the difference between your calculated true latitude at noon and your true observed noon multiplied by your C correction ,was the correction to apply to your longitude.. This to my knowledge was never taught in schools but certainly got me around for 6 years, and taught to me by an old Mariner. From the word go on joining my first ship as 3 mate with a brand new 2 mates certificate , I didn’t even know which shades to put down on the horizon and index mirrors on the old vernier sextant that saw me out. It took him2 minutes to explain a sun running fix which the school.had tried for 12 weeks to do. He is a long time dead now , and I didn’t particularly get on with him as sailed later with him when he was master, where he seemed to lose any humility he once had. Getting his masters cert at 58 was when he started making a bollix of certain things , but I still have a lot to thank him for. He was an old ex bosun but was still trying to be a bosun as regards the crowd when he was master, even giving the subs out himself and logging people at the same time. Characters we will never see again but well worth remembering . JS
Last edited by j.sabourn; 30th July 2021 at 12:54 AM.
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30th July 2021, 08:20 AM
#18
Re: Interesting for the navigators
#15 The first and only Philipino crews I sailed with was in 1969 , and were sent to replace Chinese on a crew change in Hong Kong . Were very impressionable if one was looking for paper qualifications as every man jack had a glossy certificate with photograph of same dressed in US number 10s style uniforms in the Cayman Islands , Liberian style certificates style. The deck storekeeper was very annoyed when he found he didn’t have a typewriter in his cabin , and was further annoyed when told he was there to mix the paint when required . If they are still being taught such garbage before joining a ship they must still be as green as we were when told were going for a 6 week voyage. JS.
Last edited by j.sabourn; 30th July 2021 at 08:27 AM.
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4th August 2021, 07:40 AM
#19
Re: Interesting for the navigators
That single URL link had somehow got duplicated. Just use half of it.
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4th August 2021, 07:57 AM
#20
Re: Interesting for the navigators
The Admiral was also concerned about INMARSAT being jammed and the associated communications problems that could cause.
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