A Navigational Aid (Pun Intended)

Sept. 22, 2022, 7:58 p.m.

A Story and Some Resources

I was driving through downtown Heathsville, VA a few months back and I decided to stop at the Ye Olde Book Shoppe.  This really is a nice little book store in the Northern Neck of Virginia and I would highly recommend stopping if you are in the area.  I believe that they have an affiliation with the Northumberland County Public Library and sell their old books in some capacity. 

At any rate, I will stop here occasionally to check out their nautical section.  On this occasion, I found a copy of American Merchant Seaman's Manual and scooped up this copy for a whopping $3.00.  This is a solid reference manual and is something that I enjoy occasionally flipping to a random page to check out. 

Today, I jumped into Chapter 16, "Navigation", and wanted to jot down a few noteworthy items that might be useful to others.  The authors begin with an overview of what the chapter is intended to cover and I think that anyone that intends to spend time navigating a craft about the water, large or small, should consider reading through this chapter:

Navigation is defined as "the process of directing the movement of a craft from one point to another.  The purposes of this chapter are to give the merchant seaman an appreciation for what is involved in navigation, and a grounding in its fundamentals.  The following pages are directed toward navigations requirements for the Coast Guard licensing examination for third mate, but will be of interest to anyone who intends to make his living at the sea or to a yachtsman who wishes to prepare himself for ocean sailing or crusing in coastal waters.

I am sure to revisit this chapter with some commentary in a future post, but I wanted to make this and a few additional resources available for now to anyone who might be reading these posts.

Another resource that I found interesting and had not yet been exposed to was The American Practical Navigator, DMAHC Pub.9 by Nathaniel Bowditch (and it looks like is typically referred to as simply "Bowditch").  Along with these two I wanted to communicate a few additional resources, as well, and have referenced those in the bulletized list below:

I feel like these should get you pretty well on your way to understanding navigation and I will add additional resources (and books to my own nautical library) as I come across them.