Budding Navigators of the 50"s

[j.sabourn]

To the young mates joining ships in the 50"s it was the norm to carry their own sextant and Nories Nautical Tables otherwise the ship would not get to where it was supposed to go. The shipowner by this time had learned to put a chronometer on board as was beneficial to him as for making faster passages. If no chronometer the master would carry his own and in some cases through force of habit still did. If still going up for certificates, would also carry Nicholls Concise Guide Vol 1. for any studying he may of got the chance of doing. The sextant which was always carried as hand baggage and the added weight of large tomes in his case, was to me the reason why in later years the shipowner supplied on board, especially when air travel was the convenient way of crew changing and expensive re the carriaqe of additional items. The chippy who at one time used to carry heavy tool boxes found the Carpenters store on board suddenly appeared to be properly equipped, heavy sea boots and oilskins were also latterly supplied for the same reasons I believe, it was not charitable thoughts on the shipowners behalf, but economy to be practiced. Out of all the books I had to buy I only have left the Nories Tables which I still find useful at times for mundane information ashore re conversion linear to metric, and still use the 5 figure logarithms at times. Before I retired in 2002 I never once saw anyone carrying their own sextant and hadn't for the previous 20 odd years or so. All one needs now when joining a ship really is a clean set of spare underwear, so we have gone the full circle and back to the old fireman joining the ship with his brown paper parcel with a spare set of dungarees and T-shirt. He must have known something we didn't. Fashions do come back. Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Modern ships with all the electronic gear and GPS no longer require sextant I would say. as to clean underwear, well you never know when you may have an accident!

[Ivan Cloherty]

Still have my Nicholls Concise Guides Vol I & II, Nories Tables, 1909 Manual of Seamnanship (why did I have that?) when I open them now, they frighten the hell of me!

Still have my Boatswains Manual and Browns little red pocket book and they are always a pleasure to open

[j.sabourn]

What was in Vol 2 Ivan. I never got round to buying always found something more scintillating to spend money on. As regards seamanship books bought Reeds was probably cheaper than the other one. Its amazing the amount of formula and such which had to retain in head and how much stays there as well, even though useless by todays standards. Even to rope sizes SWL and BS, wires to a strand in wire layout 12 24 and 37 wires to a strand, the lay of wire and rope, reeving to advantage or disadvantage various tackles, gun tackles and 2 3 4 5 and 6 fold purchases and sometimes bigger. Had to be a seaman first and foremost before anything else. It all started on scrubbing out the wheelhouse every morning if had one. At the end of 4 years knew every bit of the wheelhouse deck and which corner used to push the dead cockroaches into to be picked up later. Cheers JS

[Captain Kong]

I still have my Norries Tables, REEDS Ocean Navigator, Nichols Concise Guides Vol. 2. Principles of Marine Navigation by D.A. Moore and Browns Almanac. and one or two others on the shelf in front of me as I write. collecting dust now.
Brian

[j.sabourn]

Brian what do you keep the Browns almanac for, nostalgia, or the handy hints on paint mixing and the other handy tips given. The almanac itself is way out of date. I rather think but again may be wrong the D.A.Moore may be the old head of South Shields marine school of the navigation department, maybe John from there might recollect, although this Moore died pre 1964 I believe, he would I imagine of been into his sixties by then, he after being right through the war years died of chicken pox would you believe it. As I asked Ivan what was so special about Vol. 2 of Nicholls Concise Guide. Cheers JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

John Vol II Exam papers for Mates, Masters and Extra Masters (must be the reason I never opened it until now!), also included Marine Surveying, Mathematical theories, Theoretical problems, nautical and spherical astronomy, mensuration (thought that was a woman's thing!), all in greater detail than Vol I.

Wish I hadn't opened it now, it's starting to look interesting!!

[Captain Kong]

Hi John
I guess it is just nostalgia now.
I am down by the head with a house full of books that I never open any more.probably around 1500 of them which includes Sea Breezes going back to 1950, Ships Monthly and Ships Yesterday and Today, 1200 of those.
SHE is going mad about them, GET RID, SHE screams. the deck is going to collapse under the weight.
Cheers
Brian.

[j.sabourn]

Pleased I didn't buy, might have put me off. Must have had other books in place of. I had a tendency to buy the small soft backed version of different subjects, like Ship construction an Stability, Meteorology, Spherical Trigonometry, etc. etc. used to be about 7/6d each. You would have failed the English paper if you had put in mensturation instead of mensuration, thats what happens when you have spent a misbegotten youth chasing the girls. Although don't think today there is an English paper so wouldn't have mattered, doubt the examiners themselves are that versed in English as a language. Cheers JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Pleased I didn't buy, might have put me off. Must have had other books in place of. I had a tendency to buy the small soft backed version of different subjects, like Ship construction an Stability, Meteorology, Spherical Trigonometry, etc. etc. used to be about 7/6d each. JS

Still got all those John, all by Kemp & Young all cost 6s 6d each, the best value books ever, still used to this day when I get asked various questions and the memory is in doubt, which alas is getting more frequent.

No doubt my kids will put everything in the skip after I've gone to Fiddlers Green