Automatic collision avoidance systems are being installed on board more and more ships and this necessitates verifying their characteristics, as compared with postulated requirements. The requirement for such anti-collision systems may be specified as follows:

(i) Radar echoes should be tracked automatically, regardless of weather conditions, the number of echoes, or the relative distance between tracked targets.

(ii) The system should be operable by a single observer, assuming that the information given is used efficiently.

(iii) The information should be displayed in the clearest and the most comprehensible form.

(iv) The system should facilitate alterations of course and speed.

(v) Information relating to collision risk should be provided in ample time if the system is to operate in dense traffic.

(vi) The system should include alarm devices which operate in pre-determined circumstances.

In the Journal for May 1980, Adlard Coles, author of Heavy Weather Sailingand an Institute Gold Medallist, gave an account of his own investigation into the weather situation which decimated the ocean racing fleet during the Fastnet Race of 1979. Neither the formal report of the Fastnet Race inquiry nor the official meteorological analysis seemed entirely to explain what had happened. Alan Watts, a meteorologist particularly concerned with small craft navigation, from his own analysis of meteorological factors, including the barometric readings of many of the competitors, here suggests an explanation for the particular violence of the seas which was responsible for most of the damage.

The need for measures to guide shipping in congested waters to reduce collision risk has received a very considerable amount of attention over the past few years. The Safety of Life at Sea Conference in 1960 recognized the danger of collision in congested areas and required ship owners to formulate ways whereby some measure of control of traffic could be introduced with a view to reducing collision risks. Shell Tankers accept this responsibility and are, therefore, anxious to make some contribution towards the solution of the problem.

Many valuable papers on the subject have been published in professional journals recently. Most of the authors have emphasized the difficulties in which Masters are placed when called to navigate their ships through heavy traffic in reduced visibility, and Calvert in his study of the collision-avoidance problem reached a first conclusion that whatever might be done to improve anti-collision manœuvring, there was an urgent need for regulation of traffic in areas of congestion.

For more than a century and a quarter ships' crews of the world's voluntary observing fleet have made meteorological and surface current observations. Those observations recorded in the ships' logbooks are the backbone of the Marine Archive now held in the Meteorological Office, Bracknell, UK. Much use is made of computer processing for providing suitable statistical data which form the basis of maps and current roses. This article outlines the method of processing used in the Netherlands, illustrating various situations the observer at sea may encounter. The supposition that the use of modern navigation equipment could hamper the making of current observations is discussed, and situations that could cause the reduction of accuracy and reliability of current mean values are mentioned. In essence: how reliable are surface current observations from ships collected in the past few years, and particularly those that will be collected in the years to come?

The United States Maritime Administration recently published the results of a study, undertaken by the Norden Division of the United Aircraft Corporation, on automation and the operation of merchant ships. Mr. Clayton, the author of this important report, described the findings of this investigation, in so far as they affect navigation, to an Institute Meeting held in London on 16 November 1962. The paper, which is presented here, was written in association with Mr. Kurz of the U.S. Maritime Administration. It describes navigation systems for partially and fully automated vessels, and discusses the basic system requirements, accuracy and reliability criteria. A command philosophy for automated ships is developed, and finally a marine course computer, which is the first component of a partially automated navigating system already manufactured, is described. This is the first of several equipments being manufactured under contract to the Maritime Administration.

In early 1959 United Aircraft Corporation, led by its Norden Division as systems manager, undertook a company-sponsored study of the technical feasibility of operating merchant ships automatically. The results of this study were circulated throughout the industry. In April 1960 the Maritime Administration awarded a contract to Norden to study the economic and technical feasibility of automating merchant ships. The principal objective of the study was to develop a consistent series of planned, orderly, and reasonable steps towards completely automatic ship operation. The technical feasibility and economic advantage for each significant advance would be thoroughly established and then presented in a form suitable for selective application according to the particular requirements of individual ship operators.

The Royal Institute of Navigation has in its possession a remarkable set of works by its late Honorary Member Vice-Admiral Francisco Radler de Aquino. An interesting feature of many of the items of this set is the large number of annotations, made by Aquino, which throw light on the development of his short-method tables—a development which continued throughout Aquino's long career as a distinguished navigator.

A recently discovered ‘Navigational Notebook’ contains an interesting account of day-to-day navigation during the early part of the eighteenth century. The document was brought to light by Mr. J. R. Timms, a student at the School of Navigation of Southampton University, whose father discovered it in a bank at Ventnor, Isle of Wight, its depositor long deceased and no longer known or traceable. The date of the manuscript is uncertain but references to John Robertson's Elements of Navigation and Archibald Patoun's Epitome seem to place it after 1730. However the account of actual navigation is given in the journal of a voyage, in 1704, from the Lizard to Madeira, which is reproduced in the Notebook. It seems likely that the author, John Wilson, eventually came ashore as an instructor in navigation (and probably mathematics) and copied out the journal from one of his earlier voyages for the benefit of his pupils. Whether this is a later work by the John Wilson referred to in E. G. R. Taylor's The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England is not clear.

New ideas of a really fundamental character are always received with horror and alarm by the general public, and are vigorously repudiated. When Fred Hoyle, in a brilliant series of broadcasts, remarked that his physico-mathematical calculations indicated that newly created hydrogen was being continuously injected into the Universe, the B.B.C. had to take hasty countermeasures. A well-known authoress of detective stories and religious pl ys, followed by a respected professor of science, declared on the air that the earlier t lks had been merely speculative. A similar role was filled in 1543 by the theologian Andreas Osiander, who added a Preface to Copernicus's startling book De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (the author having just died), to the effect that he had only intended as a mathematical hypothesis, not as a matter of fact, to picture a rotating globe revolving round the Sun. From the point of view of pure geometry it was, it is true, merely a matter of a change of coordinates. People settled back comfortably for another sixty or seventy years, until Galileo made certain awkward observations with his new telescope.

This paper, which discusses a preliminary development of a microcomputer-based navigation system for the fishing industry, was presented at the Oceanology International Congress at Brighton in March. Dr Coates is at the University College of North Wales, Mr Dye and Mr Knox with the Sea Fish Industry Authority.

The history of the sea-fishing industry is one in which success has only been achieved at the price of experience, painfully gathered as a consequence of abortive fishing trips or damaged gear. A detailed knowledge of conditions on the sea-bed, in particular preferred fishing areas and sea-floor obstacles such as wrecks or sand-pinnacles, is clearly of paramount importance in maintaining commercial viability. At the present time, for the requirements of the UK Sea-Fishing Fleet, such specialist information is available in the form of the widely used ‘Kingfisher’ chart series. With the advent of cheap, yet powerful microcomputer systems, the possibility now exists to create a data-base version of the Kingfisher Charts, thus offering the advantages of rapid updating of information and convenient wheelhouse presentation of user-selected chart features by means of a video monitor.

At 2215 hours GMT on 21 September 1947 the U.S.A.A.F. All-Weather Flying Centre's Automatic C54 took off automatically from Stephenville, Newfoundland, and twelve hours and five minutes later landed at Brize Norton, England. Neither pilot nor navigator had interfered with the automatic equipment during the entire flight. What, briefly, is the navigation equipment and procedure employed on such a flight?

Equipment. The navigation equipment consists of three magnetic heading selectors, two air log units or AMUS and a radio compass which will automatically switch to a number of preselected frequencies.

The national SAR (search and rescue) objective is to prevent loss of life and injury through search and rescue alerting, responding and aiding activities. Specific objectives under the SAR Branch's five year R & D (research and development) plan are: reduction of search time, improvement of rescue technology, and systems integration. The project described in this paper falls under the first objective – reduction of search time.

This paper, having first reviewed briefly the operational characteristics of present radar displays, deals with a new technique for presenting the radar data whereby a large, bright, high-contrast radar picture can be produced on a flat plotting surface by projecting in sequence rapidly processed photographs of a PPI cathode-ray tube presentation. It is followed by an account, by the radar officer in S.S. Canberra, Mr. D. W. Sims, of the use of the system at sea.

A conference was held in Rome at the Hall of Congresses of the National Council of Research between 11 May and 14 May 1970, under the general theme, Trends and development in the Reckoning of Position and Course at Sea, Beneath the Sea, in the Air and in Space. The conference was sponsored jointly by the Italian, British, French and German Institutes of Navigation with the cooperation of the American Institute. A list of papers presented, with a summary of most of them, appears below. A selection of these papers will be published in this and subsequent numbers of the Journal. The papers have been arranged in an order that corresponds loosely with their subject.

The paper by Spencer and Blades, both of the Department of Psychology in the University of Sheffield, was presented on 14 March 1984 at an Institute meeting held in London to discuss Psychology and Navigation.

From its earliest moments, the young organism has a need to track and integrate into some scheme of knowledge the location of salient objects and places; and thence to develop navigational strategies for efficient movement through space. In the case of human young, their initially limited mobility constrains the extent of their active explorations, and thus their range of experience; and adult protectiveness (somewhat heightened in the modern, suburban nuclear family setting) continues to limit such explorations even when the child is fully capable of extensive movement round the local area (Pick and Acredolo, 1983).

Shiphandling training simulators have come into use since 1967. Several such simulators, with differing technical characteristics and training goals, are now in use around the world. They are commonly used to familiarize already competent masters with new vessels, restricted water areas, or some form of standard bridge procedures. Acceptance of these simulators by highly experienced master trainees has been predominantly favourable. Ship radar simulators have been in use for a somewhat longer time. They are typically used for training entry level officers as well as experienced masters.

The aviation and nuclear reactor industries, with a greater experience of simulator technology and its training value, use simulators for both training and licensing. The military (e.g. Navy) and other government agencies (e.g. National Aeronautics and Space Administration) have extensively used simulators for training and qualification. It has been suggested (Schumacker, Madsen and Nicastro, 1972; IMCO Standards of Training and Watchkeeping Convention of 1978, Resolution 17) that simulators could be used for proficiency demonstration on the part of mariners. The US Port and Tanker Safety Act of 1978 requires standards for licence qualifications by use of simulators.

The United States Coast Guard and Maritime Administration have funded research into the role, technology, and effectiveness of ship-handling simulators. Depending partly on conclusions from this research, the Coast Guard will consider partial credit toward licences for successful completion of approved simulator training. The Maritime Administration may assist maritime training academies to design and procure simulator-based training systems.

British Airways was recently granted permission for its fleet of Boeing 747-400 and 767 aircraft to operate using automatic landing systems in Category IIIB conditions; that is, decision height lower than 50 ft and a runway visual range of less than 200 m. This development might lead some people to think that the weather is no longer a significant factor in aviation operations. However, while these developments are taking place one sees reports such as ‘departure delays are still on the increase’; ‘poor weather slowed airport operations’; ‘BA flight from Singapore delayed by strong winds was five minutes from declaring an emergency’; ‘heavy rain might reduce wing lift when an airliner most needs it’. These reports confirm the realistic state of affairs that the weather, despite the introduction of modern avionics on board the aircraft, and automated instrumentation on the ground assisting aerodrome operations, is still a vital part of aircraft operations decision-making, affecting the safety and efficiency of flying.

It would be interesting and profitable to look back to see how closely the applications of science to the sea had followed its developments and technical achievements ashore. In contrast to the wealth of literature on the classical geography of the oceans and the achievements of the early voyagers there is no balanced account of the scientific investigation. Such an account would include the work of men like Boyle, who, in his observations and experiments about the saltness of the sea (1672), gave the first satisfactory explanation of this phenomenon, and showed th at it would be necessary to make a great number of observations in different climates and different parts of the world to determine the degrees of saltness with any certainty. He arranged for travellers to collect samples for him. Lavoisier (1772) and Bergman (1777) analysed samples of sea water and named the principal dissolved salts. In 1812, Alexander Marcet, a London physician, made the remarkable discovery that although the total amount of salt varied from place to place according to the balance of evaporation and precipitation, the principal constituents were always present in the same proportions. Although this was almost a premonition based on the analysis of not more than fourteen samples from different parts of the Atlantic Ocean, it has stood the test of time.

To fulfill any specific task a certain navigation accuracy is in general required. If this requirement can be achieved by different systems the cost effectiveness will be decisive. Apart from missions which allow large position errors, medium or high navigation accuracies will normally be desired, obtained either by high technological standards or by an unsophisticated system with an updating procedure. The cost of highly sophisticated systems increases exponentially with increasing accuracy, so that our object was to find an appropriate updating system.

This paper discusses the knowledge and culture of astronomy possessed by the Maya civilisation and how this might have been used for marine navigation in the 8th Century. Comparison is made with the European view and use of celestial positioning.

Inadequate human actions are still the main cause of all reported accidents and incidents on board ships. The aim of this study is to explore the influence of safety resource activities and other exploratory variables on seafarers’ safety behaviour. For this study, a series of open-ended interviews were conducted to gain insight into how shipping organisations struggle with this issue. Following the interviews, a questionnaire was prepared and distributed to professional seafarers. Two exploratory factor analyses were conducted to identify the underlying factor structure and five factors emerged. Furthermore, three hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the influence of the factors obtained, namely, Company safety orientation and Additional safety incentives on seafarers’ perceived Safety awareness, Job satisfaction, Risk acceptance and other exploratory variables. The study shows that the perceived resource-related activities of the organisation and the demographic characteristics of the respondents can influence the safety behaviour of seafarers.