NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Bill Ritchie
Date: 2023 Nov 29, 13:28 -0800
I have a well-used copy of Nicholls's Concise Guide to the (UK) Board of Trade Examinations 7th Edition 1946. This volume varies in its usage of directional terminology and perhaps helps date the transition discussed in this thread.
The (hypothetical) examiners appear to expect wireless bearings in degrees 0 - 359, deviations and variations in degrees E or W, leeway in degrees Port or Starboard, all as one would expect. However, examination papers could give a compass course of (say) “N.W. ½ W.” and the candidate was required to be able to convert this to a course in degrees.
No problem, I hear you say. That is 309.4°. Not so! The examiners expected your answer to be “N. 50° 38’ W.” That “180° E or W” terminology is used in all compass course contexts and either indicates that was the official UK Merchant Navy terminology in 1946 or that the examiners were still on HMS Pinafore.
Bill
