NavList:

Frank,

Yes, position finding is a great part of navigation.  I said nothing about navigators, only about navigation.  Would you say a surveyor is a navagator?  Both navigators and surveyors fix a position but I say they are different and fix positions for different reasons.

If you are at a fixed, known position and want to determine the location of say a mountian peak you survey, using surveying methods.  If you want to travel to the mountain than you navigate.

Cook was a great navigator but also a great surveyor and map maker.  I think Columbus was also a great navigator - he left Spain, sailed across an ocean and then found his way back to Spain.  ( Three times, if I recall. ) .  He did not fix the position of the islands he landed on the way a surveyor would but he could navigate to and from Spain.

I say that a navigator wants to know where he traveled to - where he is in his trip.  I do not think you are navigating if you are not moving.

Yes, one has to be carefull of words but I think navigation implies moving.  If you sit on a hill and fix the position of points all around you and draw a map you are not navigating.  If someone uses your map to walk to a point then they are navigating.  Yes, you can ( and do ) draw a map as you travel but you must travel to navigate.

I HAVE SPOKEN!       ;-)

John H.