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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