Marine Navigation: Piloting and Celestial and Electronic Navigation

Rating:
Summary: Pass this one by
Review: As a former instructor of Navigation at the U.S. Naval Academy, I am intimately familiar with this work. It was (and is, presumably) the official text for piloting and celestial navigation at USNA. That said, my fellow lieutenants and I roundly despised this book. The author, Captain Hobbs, fails to explain simple navigational concepts with any clarity. His homework and example problems require the attendant workbook. This may seem a boon, but the arrangement precludes the use of actual navigational publications (sight reduction tables and the nautical almanac, published by the Naval Observatory), limiting Hobbs' use in practical navigation. When I was preparing for class, I would invariably use Bowditch's American Practical Navigator to refresh my memory or answer the midshipmen's tougher questions. After my first semester of instructing, I never opened Hobbs' book again, and did not assign readings from it to my midshipmen. If you are serious about navigation, pick up Bowditch. If you are a navigational neophyte, start with Dutton's.

Rating:
Summary: For all maritime students..
Review: The standard navigation textbook at the U.S. Naval Academy and NROTC college programs for twenty-five years, this highly regarded reference has trained more than two generations of students on the practice of marine navigation in the U.S. Navy. All aspects of the duties, practices, and responsibilities of the Navy surface navigator at sea are covered. Long praised for its clarity and thoroughness, the text has now been revised and updated to reflect the latest changes in marine navigation technology and government publications. It will be a good book for all students at Maitime University of Constanta, Romania, when this will be published in Romania.