The Earth

The earth is divided into northern and southern hemisphere by the equator. The lines parallel
to the equator are called the parallels of Latitude. The equator is at 0°. From the equator the
latitude increases in the northern direction up to the North Pole. The latitude of the North
Pole is 90° N, similarly the latitude of the South Pole is 90° S.
The parallel lines joining the North and South Poles are called the Meridians. The 0° meridian
is called the Prime Meridian or the Greenwich Meridian. This meridian passes over the
Greenwich Observatory of England. From the prime meridian the longitude will increase in
Easterly direction up to 180°E, similarly from the prime meridian the longitude will increase in
Westerly direction up to 180° W. The 180° E/W is the same line , it is called the International
Date Line. When ships or aircrafts cross this line they will need to change the date.

The time at the Prime Meridian or the Greenwich Meridian is called the Greenwich Mean Time
(GMT) or Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).
The International Date Line
The Time Zones of the world
Great Circles and Small Circles:

Great Circle Great Circles & Small Circles

Great Circle: This is a circle on the surface of a sphere, whose plane passes through the center
of the sphere. So it is the largest circle that can be drawn on a sphere of given radius. The
great circle divides the sphere in to two equal halves. For the earth the equator and all
meridians are great circles.

Small Circle: Any circle drawn on a sphere other than the great circles are called the small
circles. The small circles cannot divide the sphere in to two equal halves. For the earth except
the equator all other parallel of Latitude are small circles. The equator is a Great Circle.
The Great Circle distance is the Shortest distance between two points on earth’s surface.
Latitude and Longitude

Latitude: It is the angular distance of a place North or South of equator. When the place is
north of the equator the latitude will be called as North and when the place is south of the
equator the latitude will be called as South. All the lines parallel to the equator are called the
parallel of latitude. The latitudes can be only North & South.
Longitude: It is the angular distance between the Prime Meridian (Greenwich Meridian) and
the meridian passing through a place measured easterly or westerly from the prime meridian
and always taken along the lesser arc. When the place is east of the prime meridian the
longitude will be called East Longitude and when west of the prime meridian it will be called as
West Longitude. The Longitudes can be only East or West.
Changing the Position on Earth’s Surface: When a ship sails it changes the position on the
earth’s surface and there may be change in Latitude and Longitude and both.

The earth has 4 quadrants namely NE, SE, NW, SW. A ship may sail in any direction it may
remain in the same quadrant or may change quadrant. In the picture above the A,A’, A2 & A3
are the starting points (Initial position) and B,B’,B2 & B3 are destination (Final Position). The
initial position has definite Latitude & Longitude, If a ship sails and arrive at a different position
there will be changes in the latitude and longitude and the final position will have different
latitude and longitude from the initial position.

The difference of Latitude between two points on earth is called the Difference of Latitude or
in short D.Lat , similarly the difference of Longitude is called the D.Long. The names of the
D.Lat and the D.long will be taken as per the direction of the ship’s sailing. If the ship sails
towards north the D.Lat will be North, if towards south the D.lat will be South. If ship sails
towards east the D.Long will be East and if sails towards west the D.Long will be West.
D.Lat & D. Long are always expresses in minutes of arc (‘)

Example: ( Latitude & Longitude same name )

Initial Position, Position A Latitude : 43° 15.5’ N Longitude : 43° 30.8’ W
Final Position, Position B Latitude : 31° 37.7’ N Longitude : 48° 18.0’ W
d.lat : 11° 37.8 S d. long : 4° 47.2’ W
= 698.8’ S = 287.2’W
Example: ( Latitude & Longitude different name )

Initial Position, Position A Latitude : 20° 10.4’ N Longitude : 13° 04.5’ W

Final Position, Position B Latitude : 5° 18.0’ S Longitude : 8° 40.8’ E
d.lat : 25° 28.4 S d. long : 21°45.3’ E
= 1528.4’ S = 1305.3’E

Exercise 1B, No. 1

Initial Position : 20° 50.5’ S 178° 49.7’ E
d. Lat 33° 14.0’ N d.long 15° 37.7’E
Final Position : 12° 23.5’N 165° 32.6’W

NO.4. The ship steering between a course of north & east, means the d.lat will be North & d.long will be East

Final Position : 21° 10.4’ N 168° 18.7’ W

d. lat 38° 55.5’N d.long 20° 41.8 E
Initial Position : 17° 45.1’S 170° 59.5’E
Nautical Mile: It is the length of an arc which creates an angle of one minute (1’) at the center
of curvature. As the earth is like an ellipsoid the centers of curvatures will be different from at
different places. The distance to the center of curvature will be more at poles than at the
equator. It is measured along the length of meridians.
Thus the length of 1 Nautical Mile at pole is 1861.7 meter
And the length of 1 nautical mile at the equator is 1842.9 meters
So, the average length of the Nautical mile is used as 1852.3 meters

The Land mile is 1760 yards, 5280 feet, which comes about 1609.344 (agreed internationally
in 1959). The Geographical mile is measured taking the earth as sphere and the equator as
perfect great circle and one minute length of arc on the equator was taken as the length of
Geographical mile and it is constant at 1855.3 meters.
The measurement of Direction:
Course: normally the ship’s heading is called the course. Similarly it can be called as the
direction of movement of the observer. The course can be determined with the help of
compass. The compass represents a full circle so the courses can be from 000° to 359°. The
courses always expressed in three digits (and decimals, if required), such as the easterly course
will be expressed as 090° and westerly course as 270°.

The compass Card Azimuth Circle

Bearing: it is expressed as the direction of an object from observer or a vessel. On a vessel

bearings are measured for other vessels, buoys, light houses, land objects, sun, moon, stars,
planets etc. the bearings are measured accurately on a compass card with the help of an
instrument called an Azimuth Circle. The bearings are also always expressed in three digits
(and decimals, if required), such as 045° or 223.5°

Taking Bearing Taking Bearing

The Gyro Compass: It is an electrically powered compass and very different from magnetic
compass. This can become inoperative due to power failure. Even after restarting it may
require some time to settle and become fully operational. The gyro compass may also have
some small errors.
The error of compass (Gyro & Magnetic) can be checked with sun, stars and also by shore
objects. For example on a certain day, at certain time, from a certain position ship observes
the bearing of sun/star. Which will be called as the gyro bearing. With the help of Nautical
Almanac the true bearing of sun/star at that place & time can be calculated. This bearing will
be the true bearing. The difference between true & gyro bearings will be the gyro error. The
magnetic compass error also may be found out by similar way.

When the gyro bearing is more than the true bearing it is called the Gyro error is HIGH and the
gyro error will be LOW when the gyro bearing is less than the true bearing.
Transit Bearing:

While in coastal passage or approaching a port a vessel can check compass error with the help
of two light houses or objects marked on chart for transit bearings. Here, it is shown that the
bearings of the two light houses will be 055° from ship when both will be perfectly aligned. If
ship’s compass shows 056° then 1° high , if 054° then 1° low and so on. Error of magnetic
compass also may be calculated by transit bearing.
The Magnetic Compass: It works with the principle of a freely suspended magnetic needle. If a
magnetic is suspended freely, it will point in a North/South direction. The magnetic compass
does not require electricity for operation so it will be in operation even when there is a power
failure on ship.

Variation: The magnetic needle actually does not point towards the earth’s geographical poles
it will point towards Magnetic North & South Poles which are not at the same place as earth’s
geographical poles. The magnetic poles are little away from the geographical poles and this
creates an error called the VARIATION. The variation is measured by the angle between true
and magnetic meridians. The variation for all the areas are calculated and given on navigation
Charts/Maps. The variation can be EAST or WEST.

Variation Deviation

Deviation: as the hull & many components are made by iron all these will affect the magnetic
needle. The deviation of a vessel is checked in some directions (normally every 22.5°, a total of
16 points over the full 360°). The deviation is minimized by putting iron spheres, bars and low
power magnets close to the magnetic needle. Normally when the all the deviation are below
5° then it is done. The deviations are again checked for 16 headings and the readings are
recorded and a graph is constructed, called the deviation curve or deviation table. For 16
number of headings the deviation can be applied directly for other headings the value of the
deviation has to be found by interpolation.
True bearing/heading can be found from the magnetic compass by applying deviation &
variation.
Calculations:

T : Represents the true pole , the true course/bearing will be calculated from T , towards right
M : Represents the magnetic pole,
C : represents the heading shown by the magnetic compass.

TOC : In this case the compass error (E)

TOM : is the Variation (E)
MOC : is the Deviation ( E)

The True is always true, it represents the geographical meridian of earth and there will be no
change, but the variation may be East or West depending on the position of the vessel on
earth. Similarly the deviation can be East or West.
The formulae are:
Variation & Deviation , Same Name , SUM , Take the name of the BIG one
Variation & Deviation , Different Name, DIFFERENCE, Take the name of the BIG one
Variation +/- Deviation = Compass Error
ERROR EAST , COMPASS LEAST (LESS) ( TRUE BEST , BIG )
ERROR WEST, COMPASS BEST (BIG) ( TRUE LEAST, LESS )
Courses and Bearings :

T represents the True Meridian, the True bearing of sailing vessel is 045°. All courses and
bearings are measured from the meridian towards right & expressed in three digits.

Compass bearing 055 °.

True bearing 045 °.
Compass Error 10°. W (Error West, Compass Best)
True, Magnetic & Compass bearings:

The True bearing is calculated from the True Meridian

The Magnetic bearing is calculated from the Magnetic Meridian
The Compass bearing is calculated from the Compass North

Example 2 (page 19)

Compass bearing 110 °

True Bearing 095 °
Compass Error 15° W (error west, compass best)
Variation 5° E
Deviation 20° W (deviation & variation, opposite name subtract)