Navigation and Seamanship

4.3.1. Aids to Navigation

                                                                          

The term “aid to navigation” means any object or device, external to a vessel, that is intended to assist a navigator in fixing his position or determining a safe course past hazards to navigation. It includes both fixed and floating objects such as lights, light ships, buoys, day beacons, and fog signals, plus electronic aids to navigation such as radio beacons. Navigational aids take a wide variety of forms, some are very simple unmanned objects, others are complex and costly devices some times with operating crews in attendance. All serve the same goal – the safety of vessels and those on board . Aids to navigation are put at various points along the coasts and navigable waterways as markers and guides to help mariners determine their position. They also serve to warn of hidden dangers and assist in making landfall when approaching from the high seas. They also provide a continuous chain of charted marks, showing improved channels and assisting in coastal piloting. Prominent features ashore, both natural –such as mountain peaks-and manmade-such as water tanks and radio towers, may often assist the navigator in fixing his position or directing his course; these, however, are excluded from the definition of an “aid to navigation,” which is considered to be an object established for that primary or sole purpose.