The daily star-mirror. (Moscow, Idaho) 1911-1939, 1918-02-25
Revival Of Seagoing Spirit
Arouses Widespread Inter-
est in the Subject.
SCHOOLS TEACH THE SCIENCE
Glasses in Navigation Being Conducted
by Recruiting Service of United
States Shipping Board-12,000
New Officers Needed.

seagoing spirit throughout the cOuI
try is the widespread popularity Of tn
study of navigation.
| Reports reaching the United State
| shipping board indicate lively interes
all over the country in the study o
this ancient science, which helpe'
make the nation great in its earlies
years of independence.
Glasses in navigation, conducted b.
the recruiting service of the board, tt
train officers for the ships of the new
merchant marine, are being conducted
on both coasts and on the Great lakes
Candidates for admission come from
every section of the Union.
The cause of this nationwide inter
est in navigation is to be found in the
gigantic development of the country s
merchant marine. 1t is anticipated
that not less than $4,000 new officers
will be required to handle the Ameri-
can cargo-carrying vessels now under
construction, and not less than S5,OOO
men will be wanted for the crews.
A merchant officer today has many
advantages In studying navigation that
were not known to his seagoing ances-
tors. There was never a time when
the aids to navigation were SO numer-
GUS as now, or so well developed.
While the manner in which a navi-
gator determines his ships position on
the vast face of the deep must always
be something of a mystery to the lands
man, it does not long remain so to the
earnest student of navigation. Some
Of the students at shipping board
schools have been able, after three
weeks study, to determine by Obser-
walton the position Of ship at sea
within three miles, which is considered
creditable performance. The best
navigators, on large ships, when able
to check up their observations by the
work of more than one observer, some
times do no better.
Early Navigation.
In the early days Of ocean navigA-
ton the navigator never knew his pO-
sition at sea within many leagues. 1t
was customary for ships on the voy-
age from Europe to America to sail
westerly until a landfall was made,
then coast to their destination.
Columbus followed this method, for
want of anything better.
Given sextant and chrOnOmeter, the
navigator today reduces the job OF
finding his position to one Of careful
figuring. Latitude is found by obser-
vation Of the height, or altitude, of the
sun at noon.
Longitude is quite another thing, 1t
being the distance between two places
On the earth's surface, expressed in
degrees. It is based on the rotation
IF the earth on it's axis every "a hours,
meridians Is degrees apart-a
meridian being a line between the
equator and the poles-to pass under
| certain fixed point in the heavens at
)ne-hour intervals.
For determining longitude all chrO-
used on American and Brit
sh ships are set on the time OF the
meridian of Greenwich observatory,
lear London. French ships figure
rom the meridian of Paris.
Knowing by his chronometer the
line at Greenwich, and by observation
# the sun at a. m. or 4 p. m. his own
line, the mariner, by the aid Of tables,
las only to find the difference in these
wo times, to find his distance in de-
,rees from Greenwich. This found,
he distance is easily expressed in
niles, and marks his position on his
hart.
"Dead Reckoning"
Prior to the perfection of the chrO-
lometer, the common method Of deter
mining longitude was by dead reckon
n.y." that is, estimating a ships run
lay by day, by means Of the log, de-
ice for telling her speed by means of
he rate at which knots in line, paid
tut astern, with a wooden 'log" at the
md, slipped over the rail in given
lumber Of seconds. This was uncer-
ain, and battling winds and foul
weather. made it entirely unreliable
Many fatal shipwrecks resulted from
in estimating ships position
" dead reckoning. England lost sew
Idl VI u0I UcSL SHIPS VI wal LII thS
Eighteenth century by their losing
heir bearings and crashing upon
ocky shore. One of it's bravest adj
nirals, Sir Cloudesley Shovel, lost his
life in a wreck caused in this way.
The world owes much in navigation |
o the Portuguese, as it was Prince
Henry the Navigator Of that nation,
Who collated all the ancient lore on /
he subject, in the fifteenth century,
nd pointed the way to better means
f determining latitude than by the an
lent astrolabe and cross staff.
The sextant and chronometer were
10Th Of English origin, however, and
we're brought out within five years of
ach other, the sextant in 1871 and the
improved clock-in
735. Modern navigation, such as so
many Americans are studying today,
nay be said to date from the perfec-
ion Of these two instruments.