Some Suggestions on the Rules for Preventing Collision at Sea

Extract

In recent years the Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea have been the subject of considerable interest to mathematicians. It has been demonstrated that the Rules as they stand are not entirely satisfactory, and this confirms a certain uneasiness which most navigators have in this respect. One of the imperfections in the Rules is that they are not universal: they do not apply in fog, when vessels are not in sight of one another, they do not apply to certain classes of vessel, they are affected by limitations of weather and sea-room, and so on. It does not seem unreasonable that a set of Rules could be devised, based on the mathematical work lately carried out, which would be more rational than the present Rules.