I am making my second Presidential Address the opportunity to do little more than muse aloud on a theme which is fashionable rather than original. It will be entirely personal and in no way representative of Admiralty views. I can describe the theme as the way in which man is getting along, in our particular field of navigation, with his inventions of mechanical devices, or as Shakespeare collectively and descriptively calls them—his ‘engines’. I could alternatively and not unreasonably describe it as the way in which man is becoming increasingly dependent on his mechanical aids. Yet, that would convey an impression of his going into an unduly early decline or of his doing something wrong. Obviously, he gains in being able to achieve things which he could not do unaided, but obviously, also, he must avoid rendering himself helpless if there is a chance of his inventions failing him at a critical moment.

In the course of a survey of the Arafura Sea by H.M.A.S. Barcoo, many astronomical observations were made under good, and controlled, conditions; through the courtesy of the Admiralty these observations have been made available for analysis. This analysis has been regarded as a pilot investigation for the working party on the accuracy of astronomical observations at sea. Its main, crude, result gives (from these observations) a standard deviation of a single observation as 1.1.

During the latter half of 1952, H.M.A.S Barcoo was engaged in surveying an area, 200 miles by 30, in the Arafura Sea some 50 miles north-west of Cape Wessel. Seven fleets of beacons were laid out, each consisting of about 14 beacons at intervals of about 5 miles. The first beacon of each fleet was used as a datum beacon and its position determined by astronomical observations by three observers, both morning and evening on two days; each observer took as many stars as possible on each occasion and the mean of three or four shots of each star. The datum beacons were connected by taut-wire runs and it was found that the taut-wire distances were not in agreement with the mean positions determined from the astronomical observations. It was primarily for this reason that the observations were carefully collated by Lieutenant J. M. Child, R.N., and forwarded to the Admiralty. The observations were in due course sent to H.M. Nautical Almanac Office, where it was decided to subject them to a detailed statistical analysis. They are not suitable for inclusion in the (deliberately) heterogeneous observations being collected for the working party of the Institute on the accuracy of astronomical observations at sea; but they provide the ideal material for a pilot investigation into methods of analysis.

In 1952 the Institute set up a working party, with Captain F. J. Wylie as its chairman, to make a study of the desirability of plotting radar observations of other ships, to investigate the relative merits of different ways of plotting, taking some account of the errors involved in each, and possibly to make general recommendations on the use of radar for avoiding collisions at sea. The working party has completed its study of the desirability of plotting and of different systems and methods and the report on this part of its work is given here. It is now engaged in assessing the magnitude of errors of observation and computation and the results of this assessment will be published in due course.

The most attractive features of Lieutenant-Commander R. B. Michell's method of plotting astronomical position lines with a ‘star lattice’ are that (a) plotting, relative to the moving D.R. position, is possible immediately after the sight is taken; (b) the whole process is continuous.

Introduction. The judgments discussed in this paper are mainly those which the pilot of an aircraft has to make in order to land. Some of these, as, for instance, the judgment of alignment, are similar to those made by the driver of a moving surface vehicle, but some, as, for instance, the judgment of approach slope, are peculiar to the pilot, and are very much more difficult. The main difficulties of the pilot arise, however, from the fact that an aircraft has six degrees of freedom and is controllable about all three axes, whereas the surface vehicle has only three degrees of freedom and is controllable only about the vertical axis. In bad visibility these extra freedoms confuse the visual indications in ways of which the person who has only driven a surface vehicle has no conception. The result of this has been that until recently most of the engineers concerned in the layout of airports have not realized that pilots have special difficulties; while the pilots, not having studied visual psychology and perspective, have been unable to analyse these difficulties, or even explain them in terms intelligible to the engineers. In this country, we have been able to find methods of bridging the gap, and enabling both parties to talk the same language. The practical result of this can be seen at London Airport.

The following account of the U.K.–New Zealand Air Race was given to an Institute meeting on 20 November 1953 by members of the Royal Air Force Race Team. The lecturers were Wing Commander L. M. Hodges, D.S.O., D.F.C, who commanded the R.A.F. flight, Squadron Leader R. Currie, A.F.C., chief navigator of the flight, who flew with Wing Commander Hodges, and Flight Lieutenant R. L. E. Burton, A.F.C., pilot of the Canberra which completed the course in the shortest time; the Chair was taken by Air Chief Marshal the Hon. Sir Ralph Cochrane, G.B.E., K.C.B., A.F.C.

In the early days of air navigation, dead reckoning procedures were inevitably closely allied to those practised at sea, but the rapid development of aviation has considerably reduced these early similarities. To talk generally of D.R. practices is therefore no longer feasible. It is the purpose of this article to outline some of the air procedures and instruments in use, and to give an indication of the reason that lay behind their adoption.

It was a trial and a torment to sailors when it was brought home to them that the magnetic needle did not point truly to the north, but ‘northeasted and northwested’ as they described it. ‘El nordeaster de las agujas pone alos mareantes en muches dudas’, wrote one of them, and many flatly refused to believe it, putting discrepancies down to the use of a faulty lodestone or to bad workmanship on the part of the compass-maker. In the far-off days when the use of ‘needle and stone’ to recover lost bearings was first discovered, they believed that by some magic or divine sympathy the needle turned and pointed to their star, which they called the Shipman's Star, or Stella Maris, the only one that never moved. But Peter Peregrinus, writing the first scientific treatise on magnetism in 1269, remarked that they were wrong. The needle pointed to the celestial pole, round which the Pole Star circled like any other. And three centuries later Peter in his turn was faulted by the Elizabethan mathematician John Dee, who scribbled a note in the margin of the medieval writer's book to the effect that it was neither the star nor the pole which was the centre of attraction, but a spot on the Earth—the magnetic pole.

When the Society for Nautical Research was founded in 1910, one of its objects was to work for the foundation of a National Maritime Museum. To many this must have seemed an unattainable star on which to focus their hopes, especially when a few years later the First World War broke out. However, fortune changed, and in 1928 the great Macpherson Collection of maritime prints and drawings came on the market. A fund was started to purchase it for the nation, but Sir James Caird, a wealthy shipowner, stepped in and bought the entire collection. Matters now really began to move. The Admiralty was anxious for more space in the Royal Naval College at Greenwich and this could only be obtained by removing the Royal Naval Museum, which had been transferred from Somerset House, and the Greenwich Hospital collection of paintings, which had been started in the Painted Hall in 1824. A new home was needed for these and for the Macpherson Collection, and then in 1933 the Greenwich Hospital School was moved to Holbrook, and the great range of buildings just across the road from the Royal Naval College became available. In the next year the National Maritime Museum was established by Act of Parliament and the conversion of the buildings was begun; but already fresh acquisitions had begun to come in. Sir James Caird bought such treasures as came on the market and, capably advised by the distinguished naval historian, Sir Geoffrey Callender, who was to become the first director of the museum, laid the foundations of a collection which has become the envy and admiration of maritime nations.

History. The foundation of a ‘British Oceanographical Institute’ was first proposed, at a meeting of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the War Cabinet in 1944, by Vice-Admiral Sir John Edgell, K.B.E., C.B., F.R.S., then Hydrographer of the Navy, who expressed the view that Great Britain, in its contribution to research in oceanography, had fallen behind other countries, including many with no comparable traditions of interest in the oceans of the world and their navigation. The Scientific Advisory Committee accordingly suggested to the Royal Society that its National Committee for Geodesy and Geophysics should be invited to discuss, through its Oceanography Sub-committee, the general question of the need for and the appropriate constitution of a National Institute of Oceanography, and to present recommendations for the consideration of the Society and eventually of the Government.

The report of the Sub-committee for Oceanography, which was accepted by the Royal Society and referred to the Scientific Advisory Committee, was strongly in favour of the setting up of a National Oceanographical Institute in Great Britain with the purpose of advancing the science of physical oceanography in all its aspects. The Scientific Advisory Committee supported the proposals in the report, but considered that the work of the Institute should embrace both physical and biological oceanography.

An investigation has been made into the frequency distribution of errors in equivalent tail-winds on the great-circle air-route Shannon to Gander, as forecast at London Airport. In the course of the analysis the frequency-distribution of ‘actual’ equivalent head-winds as measured from the synoptic upper-air charts was also examined, and compared with seasonal means already published. The monthly extremes are tabulated and quarterly mean and standard errors are given, with frequency curves for the summer and winter half-years.

In December 1953, a Canberra of the Royal Air Force Flying College was christened Aries IV, and thus became the first jet aircraft to bear this name, long associated with navigation development flights. This paper describes the first operational mission of Aries IV, an attempt on the F.A.I, point-to-point record for the London–Capetown route, in both directions.

The flight was originally planned as a final long-range exercise for students of the College, but since a great deal of practice had already been gained in maximum range cruise techniques it was decided instead to concentrate on the more complex problem of covering the distance in the minimum time. To add incentive, permission was sought and granted for the flight to be officially timed by Royal Aero Club observers.

Two crews were chosen, one for the outward and one for the homeward legs, each consisting of one pilot and two navigators. A two-man navigation team is rather lavish for ordinary route flying, but was adopted in this case to give experience to as many students as possible; in addition it resulted in faster astro work and more continuous map-reading, and gave a foretaste of the working conditions to be expected on arctic flights where a two-man team is thought to be necessary.

In this paper values for the accuracy with which the meteorological forecaster can assess a route wind at 40,000 feet between London and Rome from his chart are suggested, and the accuracy with which he can forecast what the route wind will be is then calculated. These figures are then compared with an estimate of the accuracy of route winds derived from the navigation of aircraft over the route. Estimates of the errors that are likely to occur in wind forecasts for various air routes in operation or in contemplation are then made and a method of using wind forecasts is suggested.

At the time (1542) when Jean Rotz presented Henry VIII with a variation compass, and an accompanying treatise1 on its making and use, the question of magnetic variation was an acute one. It formed part of a wider controversy concerning the general validity of the sea-chart which had been raised among seamen. As to this, Dr. Pedro Nuñez, writing a treatise in 1537 addressed to his friend and pupil the Infante Dom Luys of Portugal, said that there were skilled pilots who derided the chart and declared it to be ‘a mais falsa causa do mundo’—the falsest thing in the world. Hastening to its defence, Nuñez dealt at length with the navigating errors introduced by ignoring the convergence of the meridians, and showed besides that a rhumb, or line of constant bearing, was a spiral curve on the globe. He dealt only incidentally with the variation of the compass needle and how to measure it, and this may explain why Rotz made this second source of error his main theme. The parallel N.–S. lines and E.–W. lines of the compass roses making a rectangular net on the chart are completely misleading, he says, for only the ‘diametral line’ (agonic line, line of no variation) actually runs through the poles of the world, the others lie at angles one with the other according to the magnetic variation.

One of the earliest publications about ocean currents was Dampier's Discourse of Winds, Breezes, Storm Tides and Currents published in about 1700. Dampier wrote his book in 1688 and he says:

By currents I mean a motion of the sea which is different from the tides in several respects—both as to its duration and also as to its course; currents run a day, a week, nay sometimes more one way, then it may be, run another way. In some places they run six months one way and six months another. In some places they run constantly one way and never shift at all.

After some remarkably detailed discussion of currents in the West Indies and off the coast of Africa and in the south seas he says, of the Indian Ocean currents, ‘north of the line the current stays with the monsoon but does not shift altogether so soon, sometimes not for three weeks or more and then never shifts again till the monsoon is settled in the contrary way’. Of the Gulf Stream he says, ‘near the shores on each side of this Gulf there are tides, especially on the Florida shore, and ships may pass which way they please, if they are acquainted’. In conclusion he says, ‘I humbly offer this not as a complete and perfect account but as a rude and imperfect beginning or specimen of what may be done by abler hands hereafter’.

Ever since the introduction of the Air Almanac and the Astronomical Navigation Tables, requests have been received for information as to the errors that can arise in their use. Estimates of error, for particular combinations, were made on several occasions and, in 1947, the calculation was systematized; but the methods and results were not published. It is now probable that the Sight Reduction Tables for Air Navigation, A.P. 3270 (H.O. 249 in U.S.A.), and possibly the Air Almanac, will increasingly be used for surface navigation and it therefore seems desirable to put on record a precise statement of the errors that can arise through their use. The earlier work has accordingly been modified for the changes in the publications.

It is widely known that whilst radar is almost unaffected by the densest fogs, some reduction of its performance must be expected in rain, and sometimes considerable reductions under conditions of very rough sea. Little practical data have been available to the mariner on the extent of reduction which may be expected in rough sea conditions and this short paper will attempt to provide some practical information on the subject.

In 1935, Van Veen, Chief Engineer of the Dutch Waterstaat, wrote about some giant sandwaves which he had recorded on the Varne Bank and the Falls in the Straits of Dover. They were up to 40 feet high from trough to crest, and were found at either end of the banks. Although these dimensions seemed somewhat unusual at the time, such waves had been known to exist since the end of the last century, when Osborne Reynolds, experimenting in a model tank, discovered in 1899 that tidal streams could produce what he called ‘very large current ripples, possibly 7 or 8 feet high and 80 to 100 feet apart.’ In 1901, Vaughan Cornish described having seen giant ripples of that order in several localities, among them the North Goodwin Sands.

Giant waves are by no means rare. Early in 1953, H.M.S. Challenger obtained a trace on the Cross Sands, east of Lowestoft, on which several waves between 25 and 30 feet high were recorded in about 20 fathoms of water. During the summer of 1953, one of H.M. survey vessels recorded waves up to 50 feet high in a depth of water above the crests of about 12 fathoms on a sandbank north of Perim Island in the Red Sea.