Quote:
Originally Posted by dave777
Yes indeed. But if you think GPS puts marine navigation in a precarious situation, you must be trembling at the domination of "smart phones" ( that name must be a joke) in the lives of citizens purportedly responsible for their Community and government.
|
Actually you're quite right.
There is a lot of discussion about different navigational habits, and I find this to be very interesting and constructive.
I see a lot of posts that are defending technology and very strongly articulated arguments against traditional navigation, but I'm not seeing any posts attacking technology or defending traditional navigation as "better" or "best." I think some nuance has been
lost.
Were the old ways better? Obviously not. Were people better navigators? From a skillset perspective yes, but from a
safety standpoint you could argue no. Chart errors, either from transcription or cartography, are true across the board, and so don't count as a factor one way or another.
One of the largest issues with navigation (any navigation) isn't an immediate failure. It's a failure that goes unnoticed for a period of time. This is where plots on paper OR modern navigation become susceptible. Nobody in their right mind intentionally
sails towards their doom at five knots for the period of time it takes to become fatal while fully aware of the situation. That's simply not how these failures work.
A
lost signal without an audible
alarm, a miscalculation that goes unnoticed, or a
software bug that doesn't refresh an aspect of the program, or a dull pencil on a chart with a transcription error are all far, far more insidious
events than oceans turning to glass (in which case you can just get out and walk) because these
events occur with much greater frequency.
Multiple sources of navigation are required for the prudent mariner. But then, why should I argue this point? Nobody else is arguing against this point. Everyone seems to agree on these points.
But have these technologies made for more complacent mariners? I think this is a different question, and the answer is, I believe, not necessarily. But what it has done is allowed for more complacent mariners because on the face of it the rudiments of navigation are now more accessible to people without a full situational grasp of what they're doing. Few absolute laymen would look at a
sextant and set of navigational
instruments and just hop in and take off for some Pacific Island without having a better informed
concept of navigation as a discipline.
Of course, there's the story of someone who tried to sail to
Hawaii using a placemat with the United States printed on it, so obviously some level of navigational complacency is possible regardless of the technologies involved.