Old-School Marine Navigation Books.

[lyl]

I'm looking for an old, easy to understand, well written book from, let's say, the 60s that teaches old-school marine navigation to newbies.

[sv_pelagia]

Can't go wrong with Bowditch "American Practical Navigator", available as free pdf download on many sites. For example:

https://msi.nga.mil/api/publications....pdf&type=view

[Enfant Du Vent]

Ahoy Captain Full:
And for celestial navigation I HIGHLY recommend: Celestial Navigation For Yachtsmen by Mary Blewitt.
The first half is the exotic math of why it works; the second half is just the how it can be done.

Got me from Bahamas to Bermuda and then home to Nova Scotia.

[El Pinguino]

Try this... its free....

I think its excellent... but then I would say that wouldn't I......

https://www.docdroid.net/5rFQH7g/off...navigation-pdf

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

Try this... its free....

I think its excellent... but then I would say that wouldn't I......

https://www.docdroid.net/5rFQH7g/off...navigation-pdf

I am saddened to see that the illness of using ellipsis (...) to replace a comma (,) has spread to El Ping. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

That said, I can but agree with El Ping's recommendation.

And add that if you might want to understand the history and method of celestial nav, you could take a Captain Cook at a book that is just eight years old:

Glen van Brummelen, Heavenly mathematics: The forgotten art of spherical trigonometry. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press. 2013.

van Brummelen suggests you equip yourself with:
* a Lenart's sphere;
* a dynamic geometry software program such as Spherical Easel (available for free download); and
* a computer simulation of the night sky, such as Stellarium.

My local stationer's doesn't carry Lenart's spheres. I reckon most any ball (or an inflatable globe) can be used (but if you've a local supplier of Lenart's spheres, please enjoy and feel free, once you're finished with yours, to box yours and mail it to me).

van Brummelen wrote imagining that his readers were all in the N hemisphere (but that's not a complete disaster).

van Brummelen leads readers through three or four approaches to celestial trigonometrical work (ancient, medieval, and modern times two) and culminates in celestial nav. On the way, you might construct sine tables, meet the bloke after whom Sydney radio station 2GB was named, determine the eccentricity of solar orbit, determine the sun's longitude on your birthday, find the direction to Mecca (Ramadhan is about two weeks away as I write), calculate the distance of the voyage planned by the navigator of the Titanic, calculate the average speed of Charles Lindbergh in the Spirit of St Louis on 20 May 1927, calculate the area of the Bermuda Triangle, and much more including - get this - redo the work that Thomas H Sumner invented on 17 December 1837 when he was sailing from South Carolina to Scotland (via the Irish Sea!?) and needed to calculate a LOP to find Smalls Lighthouse (built in 1861 on rocks west of St Bride's Bay on what might be called the Pembrokeshire coast) to avoid being wrecked.

[SeanPatrick]

"Lecky's Wrinkles" and "Mixter's Navigation" are two old standards.


Bowditch is unmatched for the sheer volume of information, but it is more of an encyclopedia than a manual. Also, much of the celestial navigation material was cut from later editions.


There is an index of many free navigation books over at NavList.

[miketo]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

I am saddened to see that the illness of using ellipsis (...) to replace a comma (,) has spread to El Ping. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I am in complete agreement with Alan on this. It indicates laziness and muddled thinking, which may in fact be true (apologies El Ping, I'm speaking generally) but there is no need to prove it to the rest of the world.

I will now retire to the Grumpy Old Editor lounge. Thank you.

[Russ]

I have the4 volume set of these books. Fabulous if you can find a copy.
Hewitt Schlereth
Seven Seas Press, 1982

They include The Noon Sight, Sun Lines, Star Sights etc

Russ

[Stu Jackson]

Originally Posted by Full

I'm looking for an old, easy to understand, well written book from, let's say, the 60s that teaches old-school marine navigation to newbies.

What do you mean by "old school?"


Are you aware that NEW books actually teach the very same material?


Just don't read past the "Electronics for Nagivation" part.

[CarinaPDX]

What the OP may or may not be aware of is the distinction between navigation and piloting, and it seems most of the responses are about celestial navigation which is but a piece of the larger navigation topic. Before tackling navigation it is important to study piloting. Admittedly much of the old piloting books cover techniques that are little used today, such as estimating distance off by measuring the angular height of something like a lighthouse, but it usually includes understanding charts more fully and plotting courses. I recommend taking the (mostly) free courses offered by the U.S. Power Squadrons (or the Canadian Power and Sail Squadrons) but if you prefer pay for the ASA courses (or RYA elsewhere). Reading about it is one thing but actually practicing with charts and problems in a classroom is a better way to learn.

Greg

[Mithril Bham]

Great books but for a newbie? Most will never use celestial although great stuff. Read Chapmans and Annapolis first then go on to the more complicated stuff. Learn to walk before you run. Most people will only use Coastal Nav.

ASA has a pretty good book explaining concepts such as Set & Drift. Probably the only ASA book I would recommend.

[requiem]

Why old? As Stu mentioned, the new ones have the content, but there may be other reasons someone's interested in an "old" one.

For example, the 1802 edition of Bowditch includes a basic primer on decimal arithmetic before diving into the spherical trig, while later editions assume the reader already has such basic knowledge.

Since you mentioned the 60s I did run across a set of the Time-Life boating books and checking the publication year shows they aren't that far off (1976). So, I took a glance at the Offshore one and was pleased to see that it has a rather decent section on celestial navigation. I didn't find a corresponding section on coastal navigation in the collection, but what I did see when looking for it was surprisingly detailed. I'll have to sit down some time and go through them to see what else might be gleaned from them.

[El Pinguino]

Two books that you seldom see mentioned.

One is 'Nicholls's Concise Guide , Volume 1' or to give it its full title 'Nicholls's Concise Guide to the Ministry of Transport Navigation Examinations All Grades.'

Standard text used on British ships for all certificates, in print for 120 years. 10th Edition 1987, reprinted 2010.
https://www.skipper.co.uk/catalogue/...guide-volume-1

The other is most likely rather rare and hard to find , 'The Cadet's Manual of Navigation and Nautical Astronomy'.
https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-sear...cal-astronomy/

That is a first edition, mine is the 1958 second edition. Never on general sale... handed out to students at Warsash.

Both books written for navigation cadets and apprentices, not a group known for being overly bright so pretty easy to understand.

[lyl]

Originally Posted by Enfant Du Vent

Ahoy Captain Full:
And for celestial navigation I HIGHLY recommend: Celestial Navigation For Yachtsmen by Mary Blewitt.
The first half is the exotic math of why it works; the second half is just the how it can be done.

Got me from Bahamas to Bermuda and then home to Nova Scotia.

I'll start with this book. In time, I'll read the other recommended books as well.
Thank you everyone who made time for my query.

[waterman46]

I liked Georg Mixter, "Primer of Navigation". I have the 5th edition, 1967. I would not part with my copy. I learned much of what I use, other than basic plane geometry, from his book. About 2/3 of the book is celestial nav, but piloting, dead reckoning, use of radar, buoyage systems, etc. are well covered in the first part. Of course there is nothing on AIS or GPS in the book, but the OP asked for a book of the 60's era.

The entire book is quite easy to read and understand.