Cruising Without Instruments

[Lighthouse]

The "GLOBE STAR" completed a successful circumnavigation of the globe, skippered by Professor Marvin Creamer of New Jersey. Creamer navigated without the use of compass, sextant or electronic instruments! He eschewed even a wristwatch, but took an hourglass for changes of watch! Actually, a sextant, clock, compass and radio were sealed in a locker below deck in event of an emergency, but these remained sealed for the entire journey, which was attested to and notarized by proper inspections.

.................. Using only environmental clues, Creamer had sailed around the globe in a grand feat of record-breaking proportions. Creamer proved what he always believed — that it is possible to circumnavigate the globe in a small boat without instruments.

WEBSITE HERE

[tel]

It is possible also to swim the Atlantic or walk the Simpson desert in the nude. However, it is not wise.

[imagine2frolic]

When taking my Captain's license. Our instructor had retired from the Navy being a Captain himself. He claimed as a navigator in the Navy he DRed from Australia to Madagascar. With Madagascar showing up on the radar right where it should be. I would think it's more science than tomfoolery to use no sextant, or GPS. You know your starting point, current, drift, speed, and time. Just a WEE BIT of diligent math I would think........i2f

[Istioploos]

Amazing! My hat is of to this brave sailor.

[Nausikaa]

I remember the days when crossing the Atlantic in, as it often was, foggy weather, we had no indication of our position after leaving Europe. Approaching the Canadian coast one had to pass the ships' graveyard known as Sable Island. This is a low-lying sandbank, the position of which changes. As it was so low and RADAR not so good then a radar observation could not be counted on before grounding. There was a DF station on the island as well as a lighthouse but what help dos one get from a single DF bearing when approaching it or from a lighthouse in fog? Some but not much.

This used to be a nightmare and we relied on DR but gave the island a very wide berth.

Sure, using a DR works. AN EP is even better but one must be very cautious. The argument that a wee bit of diligently applied mathematics would suffice is not true as currents and tides are predictable to a large extent but they do vary. Also your leeway can change according to the state of the vessel, on a motor or steam driven vessel you have to recon with propellor slip, which changes according to how foul the prop is. There are too many variables for this to be an exact science.

It is all very well writing that, "After a lot of practice, he was just as aware of his longitude as was an eighteenth-century mariner, so he had only to sail down (sic) a parallel of latitude for landfall" but this is untrue as:

a - Harrison invented the chronometer in the early part of that centuary, the first being fitted to H.M.S. Centurion in 1736

b - even without chronometers navigators were using octants (invented by Sir Isaac Newton about 1699) and deriving their longitude by lunar distances, albeit a complicted process. Lunar distances were widely used at sea during the period from 1767 to about 1850, after which they lost ground to the chronometer which had had a slow start due to the cost of the instrument.

So, an eighteenth centuary navigator should, weather permitting, have had a better idea of his longitude than the professor. As for the voyage itself, well it certainly was a magnificent achievement of seamanship. Note that I didn't claim it to be a great navigational feat. In my opinion, the professor seems like someone who has a lot of intelligence but not enough commons sense. He made it and I am pleased for him but "don't do this at home". There are just too many things that can go wrong.

Aye // Stephen

[imagine2frolic]

I was making fun with the word WEE. Of course it would take constant attention. I was giving an example.

The book of Harrisons clocks is amazing. He refused the prize with the first clok, because he knew he could do better. Eventually he hadto fight to get his prixze, and I think it was his son who actually got the money, because John Harrison had actually died?

[Aquaria]

Many, many years ago I had the "chance" (which I did not aks for) to sail northward from Stockholm, leaving the archipelago in nice weather and then misty weather rolled in, leaving me out there for hours doing DR and trying a landfall. There was no GPS then, bearing compass was useless and I did not own the state of the art navigational aids like a radio direction finder or an AP-Navigator. Navigation without any aids was sharpening all other sences, using great caution. I learned, that it is possible to sail and navigate without.

Since then we once in a wile enjoy at least practicing navigation without GPS, just relying on traditional terrestrial navigation, doing the traditional chart work (putting cross bearings in there, then DR until the next navigational marks show up... what a great way to keep youself busy!) and on high seas getting the sextant and the HO-294 out of the drawers and with some practice it still works! And it makes you proud to see that the hand made position differs only by a few miles from what the GPS tells you!

Merry Christmas

Uwe

SY Aquaria