General Discussions
This is the place to discuss general issues related to the U-boat war or the war at sea in WWII.
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
Posted by:
j harvey
()
Date: March 21, 2001 01:00PM
<HTML>Hello AZ:
There is more to navigating at sea than following the compass. On WWII German U-boats the Obersteuermann (quartermaster) did the navigating. I have been on U-505 in Chicago and found that the navigation station on the boat was pretty luxurious (ample storage for charts and a large nav table) compared to what I am used to on small sailboats. I would imagine the Uboat, compared to small sailboats, was a reasonably stable platform from which to take sights. The Germans had, inter alia, sight reduction tables, apparently similar to US HO 214 (since superceded by HO 229 and HO 249), a nautical almanac, pilot charts and two very fine Plath sextants.
The Obersteuremann would take sun lines during the day ( the moon and Venus could be used a certain times) and use the lines of position thus obtained from the sun to get a running fix; at evening and morning celestial twilight he would get a more accurate fix by shooting selected stars and planets seriatim over a short period of time. If the sky was overcast he would have to rely on dead reckoning.
He was also responsible for tracking the speed and course of convoys when they were sighted.
None of this is easy and these men were very good at their jobs, often operating in waters where they were not equipped with adequate pilot books or charts, eg. eastern coast of the USA.
In this age of GPS, we forget how difficult and time-consuming navigation at sea was. JDH.</HTML>
There is more to navigating at sea than following the compass. On WWII German U-boats the Obersteuermann (quartermaster) did the navigating. I have been on U-505 in Chicago and found that the navigation station on the boat was pretty luxurious (ample storage for charts and a large nav table) compared to what I am used to on small sailboats. I would imagine the Uboat, compared to small sailboats, was a reasonably stable platform from which to take sights. The Germans had, inter alia, sight reduction tables, apparently similar to US HO 214 (since superceded by HO 229 and HO 249), a nautical almanac, pilot charts and two very fine Plath sextants.
The Obersteuremann would take sun lines during the day ( the moon and Venus could be used a certain times) and use the lines of position thus obtained from the sun to get a running fix; at evening and morning celestial twilight he would get a more accurate fix by shooting selected stars and planets seriatim over a short period of time. If the sky was overcast he would have to rely on dead reckoning.
He was also responsible for tracking the speed and course of convoys when they were sighted.
None of this is easy and these men were very good at their jobs, often operating in waters where they were not equipped with adequate pilot books or charts, eg. eastern coast of the USA.
In this age of GPS, we forget how difficult and time-consuming navigation at sea was. JDH.</HTML>
| Subject | Written By | Posted |
|---|---|---|
NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
AZ | 03/19/2001 02:45PM |
|
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
Capt. George W. Duffy | 03/19/2001 09:12PM |
|
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
AZ | 03/20/2001 08:17AM |
|
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
j harvey | 03/21/2001 01:00PM |
|
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
Binnacle | 03/20/2001 08:09PM |
|
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
AZ | 03/21/2001 02:35PM |
|
RE: NAVIGATION ON THE SURFACE
|
Juergen W. | 03/21/2001 04:01PM |