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their time as cadets is spent working primarily with ECDIS. Fixing your position on a moving vessel ingrains a sense

Whether you are on a ship or in a training environment Terres- of urgency that you can’t ever get from a paper plot exam. trial ? xes are looked at as a secondary position source. They It forces the student to choose the navigation aids and land are added to the ECDIS as a backup while the ship is in pilot- masses they think should be used to ? x their position. The ing waters but beyond that there are very few requirements underway process is where most students begin to fully com- or opportunities to gain any additional experience ? xing your prehend so many of the concepts they’ve recently learned. If position. If we fail to develop our Terrestrial skills during our you don’t understand something chances are you will avoid initial training process, there may be little opportunity to im- doing it all together. We should train our future navigators prove as we progress. to understand the responsibility of ? xing their position. That

ECDIS gives the user the ability to display, or not display, a sense of responsibility can easily be replaced by complacen- tremendous amount of information. Your capacity to properly cy if we lack the experience of being actively engaged in the groom the ECDIS so it displays the necessary information, in navigation process. the correct format, will in a large part come from your under- Being able to manipulate an ECDIS does not make you a standing of Terrestrial Navigation. An electronic navigation skilled Navigator. Neither does passing a chart- plot exam that chart is still a chart, you need to understand everything that you’ve practiced a half dozen times and maybe even memo- chart contains no matter what the format. rized the answers to. If we treat Terrestrial Navigation the

Instead of using technology as the reason for eliminating same way the many view Celestial, like an outdated practice core navigation skills we should use it to teach them more ef- that has no real relevance in the modern world, then that is ? ciently. Simulators for example have greatly increased our exactly how it will be perceived by current and future mari- ability to teach chart plotting. A chart-plotting exercise on ners. ECDIS should be considered the next step in Terrestrial a simulator can be just as effective as an underway watch. Navigation, not its replacement.

The Author

Author’s Disclaimer

The views expressed in this presentation

Ryan are my own and do not necessarily

Captain John Ryan holds an Unlimited Masters License. represent the views of the U.S.

He has sailed on commercial, military and training vessels.

Merchant Marine Academy, Maritime

He currently teaches Navigation and Collision Avoidance

Administration, the U.S. Department of

Transportation, or the United States.

at the United States Merchant Marine Academy. www.marinelink.com 25

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