True. Do they still even teach the Seamen about semaphores?
I wonder. They should, just like Celestial Navigation, there is a place for this technique.
Yes they do (always had at the USCG Academy)
And the Navy does now due to concerns about GPS vulnerability.
Naval Academy reinstates celestial navigation - Military Times
www.militarytimes.com/story/military/tech/2015/11/01/... Proxy Highlight
Nov 2, 2015 ... Among the fleet, the Navy ended all training in celestial navigation in 2006, said Lt. Cmdr. Kate Meadows, a Navy spokeswoman. Then officers’ ...
Navy Resumes Celestial Navigation Course - Sky & Telescope
www.skyandtelescope.com/astronomy-news/u-s-navy-resum... Proxy Highlight
Apr 5, 2016 ... ... at sea that the Navy ROTC ended celestial navigation training in 2000, ... The U.S. Naval Academy brought back celestial navigation theory ...
U.S. Navy Brings Back Navigation By The Stars For Officers : NPR
www.npr.org/2016/02/22/467210492/u-s-navy-brings-back... Proxy Highlight
Feb 22, 2016 ... A decade after phasing out celestial navigation from its academy courses, the U.S. Navy has restarted that formal training. The shift comes at a ...
In the era of GPS, Naval Academy revives celestial navigation - LA ...
www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-celestial-navigation-201... Proxy Highlight
Oct 25, 2015 ... Among the fleet, the Navy ended all training in celestial navigation in 2006, said Lt. Cmdr. Kate Meadows, a Navy spokeswoman. Then officers’ ...
I’m fortunate to own a ships chart of “The Sea Of the English Empire” originally published in 1684 on a Guttenburg type press. It covers the East Coast from Merrimack River, now in Southern New Hampshire, to the south of the James River in northern Virginia.
Actually, my map is dated 1690, as the author modified the copper plate original to include Philadelphia, incorporated in 1687, and to show boundaries of “East New Iersay”, from “West New Iersay.”
Interestingly, the entrance to New York harbor was almost totally blocked by sand bars two to six feet under the surface. The only entry was to hug the New Jersey shoreline south of Sandy Hook and work your way north.
The chart also shows the fort at the lower end of Manhatten Island, where one of the old wooden walls is now “Wall Street”.
Anyway, the chart shows a scale of latitude (north/south), yet because an accurate sea-going clock (chronometer) had not yet been developed, the chart omits any longitude (east/west) references.
To the point of celestial navigation, I’ve plotted the GPS coordinates from a spot in Virginia and to Boston and overlayed it on my 1690 chart. Interpolating the scale (accounting for the differential in scale of latitude, I find my celestial bearings, coupled with dead reckoning chart to be accurate to GPS: nine miles east to west; eleven miles north to south.
I Find That Incredible Accuracy for over four century’s ago!
I certainly hope the Services continue to teach technologies proven over centuries!
(And, Common Core tells students to use a calculator to solve a division problem? We’re screwed!)