Navigation and Seamanship

1.2.1. Introduction

                                                         

         The Earth is an oblate spheroid shape (a sphere flattened at the poles). Though the earth’s surface is not smoother for navigational purposes the earth can be considered smooth sphere and solutions of navigational problems based on this assumption are of practical accuracy.

         Navigation is the science of finding a vessels position at sea, and a navigating safely from one place to another. It is essential to know about charts, and chart reading to fix the vessel’s position. To navigate in coastal waters aids such as buoys, light houses, lights, fog signals are used. The position of these aids must be known for safe direction of vessels, so it is must to know something about earth; earth’s surface and its co-ordinate and units of measurement used.