One of the most general topics mentioned in discussion at the Institute's lectures, in its Technical Committee, and during meetings with other Institutes, is the extent to which automation can help in navigation; and it seems rather unfortunate that the question should so often be examined purely from the viewpoint of whether it will reduce the cost of performing a certain function, perhaps by saving a man or two. It would surely be more profitable to see whether it will, even at considerable expense, enable somewhat better performance and lead to further advances: not by supplanting human enthusiasm and endeavour, but by supplementing them with new and powerful tools. The advantage will be marginal at first though probably significant in keen competition, and soon amounting to the difference between success and failure.

A discussion on the extent to which automation can usefully be introduced into navigational procedures took place at a technical session of the Institute in London on 25 April 1964. Automation in the sense intended may be defined as the use of machines which derive or accept navigational information, and operate on it to provide a function for the control of the vessels or aircraft. Automatic devices which are parts of individual machines (such as the time averager on a bubble sextant, or the true motion facility for radar) may be excluded.

These two notes are the first of a series which will suggest to mariners the causes of collision at sea when radar is in use, by showing against each apparent cause an accumulation of court evidence and judgment, by isolating certain kinds of action which seem to have led to collision but have not been so regarded in every judgment and by examining certain judgments against a technically informed background.

In the articles which follow, a particular judgment is examined in the light of a more precise study of true motion as a direct source of intelligence at slow speeds, of plotting when courses and speeds are changing and of the suggestion that the Crossing Rules may be applied in fog after ‘ascertainment’.

The question of training pilots in the use of radar on a marine radar simulator was first brought up by pilots of the Swansea Pilotage Service. Their service is privately administered by the Swansea Pilotage Authority and, besides their ordinary pilot duties, each of the pilots has his own additional responsibilities, such as administrative and supervisory duties as members of the Pilotage Authority, the disbursement of pilotage earnings, the management of the Pilot Cutter Service, liaison with the dock authorities and towing companies in matters concerning the navigation of ships, pilot cutter crew training, navigational techniques, Swansea Bay surveys, &c. (There is even one pilot whose task it is to collect all the particulars of the latest navigational aids and so introduce them to his colleagues.) Altogether one is struck with a progressively-minded service consisting of members who want to make the best use of the modern aids which are being provided on board ships these days. Before pilots can enter the service they must be in possession of a Master Mariner's certificate F.G. (about one half of the pilots in the service have held command and candidates with Extra Master's certificates are on the waiting list).

In this paper air traffic control capacities at Sydney Kingsford Smith (Mascot) Airport are determined for the three most heavily loaded air traffic sections of the A.T.C. organization. Controller saturation levels are then found and maximum desirable traffic volumes estimated. The influence of various airspace restrictions is shown.

The pioneers of air navigation used a simple magnetic compass as a heading reference. At first boat or surveying compasses were used but these were not really satisfactory for use in aircraft, as engine vibration caused them to rotate. The first successful magnetic compass for aircraft use was the Creigh–Osborne compass which took to the air on 27 October 1909, in the British Army Aeroplane flown by the celebrated Col. S. F. Cody. In the years following and throughout World War I magnetic compasses based on this early work, with either horizontal or vertical cards, were widely used.

Gyro magnetic compasses are subject to a large number of errors, some of which may be eliminated, or at least greatly reduced, by careful design on the part of the instrument manufacturer and an intelligent operating drill on the part of the user. Table I shows errors under five basic headings, and allots to each error a symbol classifying it as:

(a) The responsibility of the instrument manufacturer (I)

(b) The responsibility of the aircraft manufacturer or its operator (A)

(c) Inadequate knowledge of the geomagnetic structure of the Earth's field (K)

Some sources of error in Table I are marked with an asterisk. It is these which the designers of the compass system described have endeavoured to eliminate.

It has been said that the mathematician accepts the gaussian distribution because he believes it to be supported in practice, and the practical man accepts it because he believes it has a sound mathematical foundation. Presumably it is for such reasons that the gaussian distribution is known as the ‘normal’ distribution and ‘probability paper’ has scales specially distorted so that a gaussian distribution will appear as a straight line.

In this paper Mr. Katayama of the Idemitsu Tanker Company describes some of the advantages and problems of operating mammoth tankers. The size of average tanker tonnage over the past seven years has increased from 33,000 to 55,000. The paper first of all discusses the economic advantages of large tankers and then describes the limiting factors to size, both from a shipbuilding and operating point of view. The handling and manœuvring characteristics of the Nissho-maru, the world's largest tanker which is operated by the author's company, are then described, and finally some navigational details of the passages made by this ship are given.

In this paper, a condensed version of an address to the Annual Assembly Meeting of the Radio Technical Commission for Marine Services held at Boston on 31 March 1964, where world-wide shore-based harbour radar surveillance and guidance systems were discussed, the Harbour Master of Southampton reviews some of the more recent developments of the Port Operation and Information Service at Southampton. Developments in the port itself are first briefly described and then some implications for Southampton of the Rochdale Report and the Harbours Bill are examined. After an account of some improvements in radar equipment used in the port, some new ideas now being investigated are described.

This paper was presented at the Eastbourne Convention in May 1964 and is based on data published by the author in recent issues of Meteor. Abh. Freie. Univ. Berlin.

This paper, based on an earlier one presented at the Eastbourne Convention in May 1964, discusses certain aspects of S.S.T. performance and its bearing on the design of the air navigation system and on the air traffic control system. The requirement is established for a navigation system capable of directing the S.S.T. at minimum economic penalty and within the limits imposed by air traffic control and sonic boom considerations. The system should also be able to determine estimated time of arrival, fuel remaining, and altitude for any randomly chosen point along the flight path; to derive the time of arrival at a particular altitude and, for a selected time of arrival at a chosen position and altitude, give the deceleration and other necessary command information.

Captain A. F. Dickson's paper entitled ‘Recommended Routes for Ships in Congested Waters’ (Journal, 17, 217) suggests the introduction of a principle which I advocated in two previous papers, the second of which was presented at the Conferenza Intemazionale Sulla Disciplina dell ’uso del Radar, in Genoa, May 1957. Captain Dickson writes in his article:

It is therefore suggested that the measures to be taken should involve the application of one simple basic rule, that in all cases ships should keep to the starboard side of any channel and that traffic rounding a headland should be separated so that ships proceeding in opposite directions will have a port-to-port passing. In addition, wherever possible the different streams of traffic should be separated by a lane which would be a virtual no-man's-land between ships sailing in opposite directions. The lane might well be shown in colour and British Admiralty experience seems to indicate that purple is a good colour for chart usage, so the lane might be known as the “purple lane”.

In my works it was stated ‘Coastal radar navigation constitutes a very valuable means of making feasible an ordering of the natural traffic streams by regulating them according to the requirements of each area, following experience.

The fundamental necessities of efficient bridge and chartroom lighting, which matter appears to have been ignored even on many of the latest vessels, are the provision of:

1. Adequate illumination of all instruments in a uniform manner.

2. Efficient illumination of the chart.

3. A reduction of the high contrast of light values between chartroom and wheelhouse and the elimination of the sources of glare.

These three essentials can be combined to render the overall illumination of the navigating bridge efficient and practical, whether the ship has a separate chartroom and wheelhouse or the more modern chartroom and wheelhouse combined.

All bridge instruments, such as clocks, compasses, telegraphs and the numerous indicators, should be made to a uniform specification—all with ‘back’ or ‘edge’ illumination provided by red lamps. Where practicable these instruments should have black dials with white lettering. An extra refinement is to have the lettering painted with a luminous paint. Illuminating the instruments in this manner would also afford a certain amount of illumination to the otherwise dark navigating position. This would in turn tend to alleviate the high contrast of light between the chart area, which of necessity must be lit, and the total darkness outside.