Excerpt from Navigation

There is a story, handed down from generation to generation of seamen, which may well serve to indicate the purpose of this little volume. A new First Lord of the Admiralty (let us say, of Barataria) was paying his first official or other visit to a man-of-war. He was received with due ceremony, and escorted to the hatchway leading down to the captain's quarters. There, viewing the uncomfortable ladder and the unknown depths below, he ejaculated (in Baratarian): "Jehoshaphat! the durned thing's hollow!"

This particularly unveracious yarn embodies a truth. Ships are, to most landsmen, a new and unfamiliar country, seamen are a peculiar people full of strange language and unexpected customs. And even those who voyage as passengers more or less frequently do not often see much of the working of the ship, and both officers and men are too busily engaged to spare time for explaining technicalities. In particular, it is a mystery to all but the seaman how, from the moment of losing touch with the land, a ship is piloted out of harbour, set fair on her course towards her destination, and located day by day on the chart until she reaches port again.

The aim of this book, then, is to initiate the reader, as far as may be, as a sort of honorary member in the great company of seafarers.

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