Great Falls daily tribune., 1920-01-09
HASKIN LETTER
ABANkER-NAVIGATOR
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

and having this direction, by process of
triangulation. it could determine the
ships position and communicate 1t to
the ships captain by wireless.
This method has been IN use TOT sey-
eraI years now, on all coasts adequately
eouipned with wireless stations, and by
both naval and merchant ships. 1t not
only helps q ship to enter harbor, put
it enables a ship within sixty miles Of
coast to determine its position even when
the stars are not visible. When you un-
derstand that nearly all wrecks are caus-
ed by ships running ashore IN ios'
nreciate the value Of this method to yes
sells travelling near the coast. 1t means
that the toll of life and property taken
by dangerous capes like Hatteras is
But this method did nothing for the
mariner at sea. He could pick up the
wireless messages from the shore STA.
in return, because the puny wireless on
board a ship is only reliable for distances
less than a hundred miles. 1t is hard to
explain this matter to layman (espec-
Tally for another layman) but suffice it
to say that in order to compute his posi-
ton by trigonometry, the computer must
have at least one known distance. Inat
is where the shore station comes in. The
shore station knows its own position,
and the distance to some other point,
saw another shore station. It can get
the direction of the ship. The computer
on shore can then draw two lines of
triangle. BY trigonometry he can com
pute the third line, and complete the tri-
angle. The position Of the ship is the
apex of the triangle.
Whether this is clear to you or not,
YOU will understand that the mariner IN
mid ocean lacks the two positions. he
could find out, with his little direction
| finder, in what direction some shore sta
ton lay, for his wireless could always
pick up messages from shore. stations
+! He could locate that shore station on the
| map. He then had one point and one
his triangle and that is all. He could
say with certainty, for example, that
the station at Old Point Comfort was
due west of him, but he could not tell
| how far west.
The contribution of Clements consisted
in pointing out the simple fact that the
mariner did have, all the time, another
known point on the face of the earth;
to wit, namely. the north pole. he mad
but to look at his magnetic compass, the
sole reliance of mariners for so many
wears. and he could draw another line
| of his triangle, due north from him lie
could then draw two lines of his triangle,
as before. He had all the materials ne
cessary for finding his position, no mat
ter whether he could see the stars or not;
This method has been pronounce
sound by the expert navigators OF the
navy department and has been publlsh@
by them, under the signature of Glenn
ents. 1t has not been used to ar any great s,.1
extent as yet, but its practical useful,
ness seems certain. And its potentlaI
value can be scarcely overestimated; Fol
ignorance of his position has always sI;,.
been the curse of the navigator. inns
Ignorance was dangerous enough in the
Old days when sailing ships ploughec
along st an average of a few miles az II
ago when seven or eight knots tabou'
ten miles) an hour was considered higt
speed for a gunboat., But now the fast i,
est destroyers travel at the rate of 3e
knots, which is over 40 miles an hour
Such vessel knows the direction i
which it is going and approximately th'
speed, as shown by the log. Hence i
knows about where it is. But winds ant
ocean currents throw it off its course