 To all newcomers to the world of the marine navigation, it usually seems as a sort of magic, incorporating countless data tables, formulas and strange names. Many people working on board ships as navigators have quite limited knowledge of mathematics and that is the fact. However, the navigation by its nature is rather mathematical subject and this is the way it should be actually taught.
Moreover, this is why a good understanding of mathematical concepts shall be possessed by all navigators. Note, however, that the author of this book did not o too deep into the aspects of trigonometry or spherical geometry under assumption that these could be avoided. The book is quite compact so it will not take too much of your time to address every single chapter of it, but the benefit offered by the contents are really good.
Taking into account that the mathematical foundations of the science of marine navigation remain unchanged, we do encourage all people involved in handling marine vessel to pay close attention to the information presented in the pages of this volume. It will also be interesting to the practicing mariners including those using the electronic navigation means – it is always good to know the essentials.
 The marine navigators of all times and all nations always relied on the stars when navigating their vessels. Thanks to the numerous technical innovations that took place recently, the newer and more and more reliable ways of charting the course of the ships. However, the celestial navigation remains essential and unfailing option. That is why the training of any marine navigators cannot be considered complete without the celestial navigation techniques having been covered in detail.
This volume written by two professional captains will provide the readers with the main underlying technical principles of the celestial navigation in a very accessible way. Note that even the absolute beginners to the world of marine navigation will benefit from the content of the book due to the clear explanations and examples provided by the authors. More than two hundred informative sketches have been included in order to illustrate the text together with the examples.
Numerous problems supplemented with the solutions and comments are there to facilitate better understanding of the theory. It is a really easy and comfortable reading for all students and of course practicing navigators. Fifteen chapters of the publication will provide them with literally all information they need to be aware of to start navigating their vessels.
 This is a great reference and one of the most popular and successful books on seamanship. Most of the fundamental knowledge can be obtained from this brilliant book, presented in a clear and understandable format. The contents of the volume will help trainees preparing for their officer of the watch examinations. It is mainly a collection of the carefully selected crib sheet containing the essential information specifically designed to help students and cadets jog their memory.
The practicing mariners, in turn, will benefit from the bullet point style format of the volume. There are three main sections in the book. The first section deals with the navigation, covering all relevant topics from voyage planning and up to the heavy weather sailing.
The second section of the book addresses the response to emergencies, including actions to be taken in the event of collision, flooding and grounding incidents, equipment in use, pyrotechnics, lifesaving appliances and everything else you will need to be aware of in such cases. The closing section covers the shipboard operations including all associated regulatory framework, such as the ISM and ISPS Codes, MARPOL and STCW Conventions, IALA buoyage systems etc.
 The writing of this publication was entrusted to one of the prominent sea people of the past times, Commander Hepworth who put the whole treasure of his experience in the pages of this book in order to help the mariners of the future cover their practical demands in connection with the study of weather as applied to marine navigation.
There were several objectives, and one of them was to supply the seafaring community with the trustworthy information and knowledge about the weather, that could be used in any part of the world so that all seafarers could know what can be expected of the weather and use this knowledge for provision of the safety of their vessels. The author also wanted to enable the mariners to make the weather conditions favorable through making correct choice of the planned route, timing of the intended voyage and setting the course.
Another aim of the publication was to enable the mariners to make the best they could from the bad weather, i.e. make them duly prepared to any weather that they will experience throughout their professional life, when sailing on board different ships and in different parts of the world – needless to say that such preparation is of utmost importance.
 What is sailing? We could define it as the means to harness the wind so that it takes you across the sea, ocean, or river, to any desired destination port. You have to know and understand many things in order to conduct the voyage safely. The present popular publication will give the explanations of the fundamental elements of sailing top all newcomers to the world of sailing.
The experienced sailors, in turn, will find it useful as a readily available “cheat sheet”. People who have little to no sailing experience will benefit from this volume as they will get to know what they shall do to stay safe , to be a part of the crew team, to be comfortable, and they will also learn the basic skills. And the practicing seamen will use this book to refresh the essential working procedures and seamanship techniques prior to undertaking another voyage.
The author of the book covered literally everything, starting from the safety and comfort aspects and basics of sailing, moving to the berthing, anchoring and mooring, making a sea passage and staying on board, and to understanding the weather and handling emergencies. The technical maintenance and repair have been paid particular attention and addressed within a separate chapter; same approach was applied to the knot and splice making.
 This classic work was not actually released with the intention to fill in the gap on the subject of marine navigation that used to exist at the time of its publishing back in the late nineteenth century. The objective of the author was rather to acquaint the readers with one of the commonly used methods throughout the volume, omitting most of the complicated mathematical calculations and formulae.
Such approach used by the author made the book understandable to the people without good knowledge of mathematics. The publication covers the essential navigation elements. There are tables added with the supplemental information and data, so the readers can find in a single volume all basic information they would need to be able to navigate their ship from one port to another.
The book starts with the definition of the main terminology and description of the essential navigation instruments together with the instructions on their use. Then, the fundamentals of marine navigation are provided in a clear and understandable manner. This is a recommended reading for the people with the interest in the navigation who may wish to know how the particular elements of it were approached and taught in the past.
 Have a look into this interesting publication, maybe the oldest of those available today on marine navigation. Written by the professional mathematician more than 150 years ago, the publication retains its usefulness to the students of navigation. As it is quite clear from the title of the volume, the main emphasis has been made on the mathematical basics of navigation.
Though it was originally composed mainly as the textbook for students, the content addresses the matters that would be of great practical interest even for the experiences ship navigators. The problems required by the mariners have been dealt with together with the rules applied when solving those problems. In addition to that, the rules have been provided with the detailed and informative demonstrations and examples for better illustration. Numerous practical exercises have been included.
All of the rules are given in a very concise form for better understanding and the author hoped that the content would be understandable to the students of ordinary talent and possessing some very basic understanding of the subject. The book covers the algebraic and analytical symbols, geography and astronomy, various instruments commonly used in marine navigation, sailing itself including all aspects and techniques, and many other important topics.
 This is quite a specific and rare publication. The Modern Navigation textbook was written by one of the prominent experts in the field of marine navigation, Commodore Hastings. The exigencies of the World War disclosed a demarcation line between the methods of marine navigation used in the merchant and navy fleets.
The commanders of the navy vessels used to apply the Sumner, or St. Hilaire methods; however, the captains of the merchant fleet ships preferred to use the time sights. The content of the present publication mainly deals with the Sumner and St. Hilaire methods and reflects the theoretical knowledge and great practical experience of the author which he wanted to transfer to the students of marine navigation. The book starts with the examples in latitude, time sight and dead reckoning.
Then, there are two big sections dealing with each of the above mentioned methods. The book will be useful to the people with the deep interest in underlying concepts and fundamentals of the marine navigation as it contains the information that is quite difficult to find in the similar publications. Have a look into this book and you will get to know something new and interesting about the real marine navigation.
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