I'm unconvinced that there's a reason to navigate in that scenario.

from a USNA grad in 1974. He did not know that there was a difference in the yearly published Nautical Almanac. Of course that does not mean that all of them were like him.

I guess we always assumed they kept teaching it...

I worked on a tall ship in Baltimore for a while, and that just made me incredibly happy.

Picard has some great lines lamenting the loss of the good old days of freedom on the open water, navigating by the stars.

are still required to know celestial navigation.

When I was a young pup, deck officers used to carry their own sextants when reporting aboard.

Last edited Thu Oct 15, 2015, 11:18 PM - Edit history (1)

Since I have interest in the history of polar exploration, I acquired a cheap second hand sextant. I worked at for a bit, but found it complicated.

The great explorer Amundsen had four qualified navigators, himself included, on his 1911-12 journey to the South Pole. Using only sextants and taking many sun-shots, there were able to place the position of the pole to within an estimated few hundred yards.

Shackleton had with him on his 1914-16 expedition, a gifted navigator named Frank Worsley. On a small open boat journey, across the stormy southern ocean in winter, Worsley was only able to get two shots, but still managed to navigate them to their destination over an eight hundred mile journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island. They eventually secured help and rescued the remaining men without loss of life.

I have an old(1920's) set of manuals and a set of 78rpm albums to teach/learn Morse Code.

Perhaps there will be a need to bring it back?

...---... ...---...

The last Morse code message from?

they had to go to Micronesia to find someone who knew celestial navigation!

There were also currents, wave directions, fish and bird signs, etc.

But there was no one left in Hawai'i who knew any of the old ways. Fortunately, they got the Micronesian guy to train them.