For the past thirteen years , I have had the honor , and privilege , of serving as a qualified Quartermaster of the Watch (" QMOW "), on board the U . S . Coast Guard ' s training vessel EAGLE . EAGLE is a 295-foot square rigger ( technically a barque ) which serves as the Coast Guard ' s primary platform for training Cadets and Officer Candidates . In my capacity as QMOW , I stand navigational watches , and help to instruct the trainees in piloting , celestial and electronic navigation .
The Commanding Officers of EAGLE have been big proponents of celestial navigation and like to offer challenges for the trainees . As an example , while on passage from Boston to Prince Edward Island , the vessel ' s GPSs mysteriously “ malfunctioned ” and the cadets had to navigate EAGLE by primarily using Celestial Navigation .
Emergency Navigation David Burch
Since the cadets were being offered a challenge - GPS failure - I decided to up the ante for myself . What would we be able to do if , for example , the cadets dropped all the sextants overboard or , even more ominously , if we needed to suddenly abandon ship with no chance to gather any navigational instruments or references ? Quite a bit , as it turns out . In fact , as long as you are wearing an accurate watch ( ideally set to UTC time ) and have memorized a few key facts , it is possible to determine your position to within about 300 miles , or less , anywhere on the Earth .
Article by Steven Henkind MD PhD Quartermaster of the Watch USCGC EAGLE
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