Submarine Navigation - The Story Continues

摘要

"Where are we Navigator?" or, far more often,"where are we Officer of the Watch?" (OOW?) ...The not unreasonable demand from almost every captain in the midst of some complex activity, usually just before the aforesaid OOW or Navigator was "about to plot" a fix. It has been the same since time immemorial for Warships. For the Surfaced submarine this was made ten times worse because the navigation was conducted below, in the nice warm dry Control Room by a Petty Officer of the Watch (Navigation) on your behalf; never mind eyes in the back of your head, you needed to be psychic! Whether in my first Diesel Submarine (Opportune) or the many nuclear-powered conventionally-armed Attack Submarine (SSN) I served in, including 3 years Navigating HMS Swiftsure, having that mental picture of what was around you and what would be around in 6 hours' time; what lights would appear, and when; what alterations of course were to come; you always planned your thoughts around the fact that you might not actually be relieved after 4 hours! It was all good training for the complexities of dived navigation; you saw an awful lot less and you might (in a Diesel Submarine (SSK)) be moving more slowly, but the principles did not change, and at least now you could see the chart, and plot the fixes, infrequent as they were.