NAVIGATION. 





m 



ing* and flowing* over or about various dangers, constitutes the study 

 at a lifetime ; o th.it we, n-hcn speaking of the oldest pilot, seem to 

 imply the ablest pilot as the ability referred to ia attainable only by 

 long observation and experience. Some masters of coasting Teasels are 

 of a still higher grade as regards education, inasmuch as when the 

 Tsassls they navigate are of the burden of 100 tons, not only mu-t the 

 master himself hare received a certificate of examination by officers of 

 the Board of Trade, but one other officer, at leant, in the vessel must bo 

 also certificated. Perhaps no other nation possecms sn large a number 

 of these dariuj and devoted seamen ; trained in all weathers and in nil 

 see inns, they acquire a position among unpretending navigators v, liich 

 would render comparison of them with those of other nations a source 

 of pride and congratulation. 



It is remarkable, that while ra'ners and manufacturers have their 

 special schools, surgeons their colleges, men of Ian- their inns of court ; 

 the clergy, their universities; the oversea-officers, or ocean navigators, 

 a body of men who form a large majority of the ship-master* of 

 England, have no suitable schools of navigation Teachers are not 

 wanted, it is true, but it is what they teach, or rather what they do not 

 ttaek that specially needs public attention. In all other branches of 

 science, a knowledge of the why and Ike vhenfore is deemed indis- 

 pensable to the proficiency of the student, but in navigation alone, a 

 person is absolutely doomed to work blindfold, as regards the very 

 ground-work on which all practical navigation rests. For not only do 

 the very best works in use set at nought the necessity for a proper 

 foundation being laid in the doctrine of spherics, and projection in par- 

 ticular, but in the highest examination of a captain by the Board of 

 Trade for an extra certificate, it is required only that he be able to 

 explain enough of spherics to illustrate the nature of great circle 

 sailing : he is " not re/aired to go into the ralfulationt." It ia no 

 reproach to our rulers that such ia the case Evils HO extensive have 

 not been the growth of recent years. Remedies are yet required. 

 The establishment of institutions of a higher order for instruction 

 would tend to remove such evils, and would inevitably promote the 

 production of works of a superior character. 



In navigation we have to deal with changes of a ship's position as 

 sailing upon a spherical figure. It may be said, that the formulae used 

 in Mcrcator's, or middle latitude sailing, are sufficiently simple for 

 general practice ; yet how few in the merchant service can even con- 

 struct the figure. And again in great circle sailing, who would not 

 prefer seeing a merchant captain, when desirous of finding his tangent 

 course, use an elegant, short, but exceedingly simple method by con- 

 struction, which he tcuuA/ understand, to the more tedious method of 

 calculation which he would not understand. Of far more importance 

 is it to the nautical astronomer, who alone deserves the name of 

 navigator, to clearly comprehend the nature of spherical trigonometry. 

 All his problems and daily observations are the practice of spheric 

 operations. The imaginary lines of the " vast concave " are designated 

 and estimated by terms derived from the doctrinal attributes of the 

 sphere. If thrn we inquire how an ordinary so-called navigator makes 

 use of celestial observations while totally ignorant of principles, we are 

 constrained to a confession, which, were not the ship-masters them- 

 selves loudly complaining of its truth, would stigmatise our mercantile 

 maiine, while the onus of the defect actually rests, not with them, but 

 with the votaries of science themselves. How can it be, that while 

 an since every work on navigation taught spherics both by 

 projection and calculation, in 1860 not a work in this great country 

 gives the lame facilities for a seaman's use 1 



The cause of this may be thus traced. Towards the close of the loot 

 century, various elegant diagiams for the aiding of the mariner by 

 saving the labour of calculations were published in England. As an 

 example, the perhaps most elaborate and in themselves most ingenious 

 of them were by Margett in about 1772. A means of working, 

 which was totally independent of calculation, soon began to be found a 

 convenience to sea officers. Those of the greatest school of navigation 

 ever formed, namely, the officers of the late East India company 

 possessed such pleasant and interesting aids as Margett's ' Tables of 

 Longitude,' and more recently, set* of ' Linear Tables,' &c. &c.; these 

 gradually superseded calculation by logarithms in operations derived 

 dirtftly from the doctrines of the sphere. [SriiKiiourui'ii.] And 

 again, ingenious formula: sprung from various equational combinations, 

 biding from the mind'n eye their palpihh- origin, until now, the sailor 

 unfortunately has nothing el.te to rely on. These formula! are, still 

 more unfortunately, considered useful in projM.rtion as they 

 condensed and shorter. We have thus blindly and uncon 

 offered a premium to mathematicians for the obscuration of those 

 principles of which a proper knowledge is now claimed on behalf of 

 navigators. The abridgment of formula) in itself is not to be stigma- 

 it was, however, in the circumstance of such abridgments 

 occurring just at a period when diagrams entered largely into the 

 practice of the day, in which lay their danger. Nor do we complaint 

 of diagrams, merely as such, but the great evil bos been the pul 

 of such as illustrate no system, or assist in i iy study. If 



they had helped in the demonstration of spheric principle*, calculation 

 iUelf would have been simplified and u-tiim-l in pi.ieticc. A very 

 long experience in educational matters enables the writer (who for 

 upwards of thirty years has anxiously watched the question, U ing 

 himself a navigator), to assert that all nautical diagrams which are not 



palpably deduced from the projections of the sphere, n :a\ the 



stenographic, orthographic, and gnomonic, have a baneful 

 while on tho contrary, such diagrams as are really illustrations of, and 

 demonstrative of, spherics, cannot be too plentiful. It foil- , . then, 

 that the present generation of navigators want assistance in spherics. 

 It may be suggested that to attempt a sudden remedy would be 

 impolitic. The authorities might, however, as a first step insist in 

 their examination of an ocean captain, to see that be know en< 

 stenographic projection to enable him to answer ordinary questions by 

 spheric c instruction. Hut everything that can be done to illustrate 

 stenographic projection is worthy the encouragement of the Boon) of 

 Trade. Navigation therefore, as a branch of highly important practical 

 . does not at present in England take its legitimate place. 

 Young sea officers require a peculiar cdur.it:.. n. Tl. 

 Admiralty have taken the initiative, and in H.M. Navy, the prh 

 which affect the merchant service do not cxi.-t. It is a notorious fact, 

 that whereas in other professions, experience increases know), 

 principles; in navigation the older practitioner knows less of 

 than the young sailor fresh from his examination. 



As regards the nature of the operations used in conducting a .-hip's 

 course at sea, we give details under various he:uls, such as COMPASS; 

 DITAUTURE; GREAT CIRCLE OR TANUKM SAIUVU; LATITUD 

 LoxniTCDE; LEAD LINK; LOCAL ATTRACTION; Loo AND Lo>. 

 LOO-BOARD AND BOOK ; SAILING. ic. ; to which we refer. 



NAVIGATION LAWS. [Sim- AND SUIITINO.] 



NAVY. A few leading facts as to the rise and progress of the 

 British navy will form a fitting introduction to the main subject its 

 present constitution and force. 



In the early part of the Christian era. so rude was the build of 

 vessels, and so inadequate were they to contend with tha wind- 

 aiul waves, that it was not until the reign of the emperor Probus, 

 A.D. '276-82, that the veil of terror hanging over the ocean and distant 

 voyages was removed. That emperor, in pursuance of his plan of 

 colonising the bonier land", which \M-IV exhausted by war, with i 

 from the crowded countries of the barbarians, had carried a jarty of 

 Franks into Pontus, with a view of defending that country against the 

 Alani. Love of home induced some of these people to attempt their 

 return; they seized ships on the Euxine, and plundered the coasts of 

 Greece, Asia, and Sicily, either to supply their wants or for nvenge : 

 passing the pillars of Hercules, they veered to the right, and completed 

 their voyage by disembarking at the mouth of the Rhine. From thi.< 

 voyage we may date the origin of nautical enterprise. The .- 

 took advantage of the rich harvest thus opened to all who would attack 

 the Koman provinces by sea, and ravaged the coasts to such an extent 

 as to oblige the Romans to establish a fleet in the English Channel to 

 repel them. After the Saxons had been long in possession of En 

 they lost their naval arts, and in their turn became a prey to the 

 constant attacks of tho Sea-kings, Vikingr, and other pirates. \\"e have 

 no record of the size or number of the vessels which sustained so many 

 conflicts with the Danes in the 9th century. Alfred the Great was the 

 founder of the English navy. He first perceived the necessity of a 

 fleet to protect the coast from the swarms of pirates in the n< 

 seas. A slight advantage gained by some ships of his over the ! 

 in 876, induced him to build long ships and galleys, which, as his 

 countrymen were not competent to manage them, he manned with such 

 piratical foreigners as he could engage. After he had .Inven out the 

 Danes, he applied his talents to improve his ships, and built vessels 

 higher, longer, and swifter than before, some rowing thirty pair* of 

 o%rs, others more. Ethelred made a law that whoever was lord of 

 311' hydes of land nhould furnish and build on, 

 the country. 



Willi.im the Conqueror established the Cinque Ports, and gave them 

 certain privileges on condition of their furnishing ;VJ ships for 15 days, 

 in case of emergency. King John claimed for England tho sovereignty 

 of the seas, and declared that all sin,- belonging to foreign nations, 

 which should refuse to strike to the British flag, should be deemed fair 

 and Ian in] pri/e. In the year li'US, an English sailor having been 

 killed in a French port, war ensued, which it was agreed to settle by a 

 naval action, which was fought in ! tin 1 < 'h.uinel, and the 



b, being victorious, carried off above 250 sail. In 1340, when 

 King Edward III. with 240 ships was on his voyage ' 

 in with and completely defeated, off Sluys, the French fleet of 400 soil, 

 manned with -10,111111 men. The same monarch blockaded Brest with 

 I, containing 15,000 men. Many of the ships composing these 

 fleet* were Genoese and Venetian mercenaries, but they must have 

 ry small, and the numbers of ships and men arc probably 

 exaggerated. Henry V. had something of a navy, lor v,,- tind among 

 the records in the Tower, a grant under his hand of annuities to " the 

 inaistres of certaine of our owue grete shippes, carrakes, barges, and 

 ballyngcrii." Henry VII., who succeeded in 1 485, seems to have been 

 the first king who thought of providing a naval force which might bo 

 at all times ready for the service of the state. He Unit the Great 

 Many, properly speaking the first ship of the royal navy; she cost 



.ami was accidentally burnt in 1553. Henry VIII p< 

 the designs of his father. He constituted the Admiralty and N -ivy 

 Office, established th'- Tiiniiy House, ami the dockyards n! J'eptioid, 

 Woolwich, and Portsmouth; appointed regular salan- uiiraln, 



captains, and sailors ; and made the sea sen-ice a distinct profession : 



