COGS 102A, FALL ‘18 — Assignment 2
DCOG system analysis
DUE BEFORE 11PM ON TUESDAY 11/13
Submit via TritonEd. No late submissions, no exceptions.
WHAT YOU’LL TURN IN
A ~4 page paper synthesizing research insights based on course readings and lectures.
Assignment Goals:
The goal of this assignment is to practice applying the concepts you have learned thus far
towards a more comprehensive discussion and analysis of a DCOG system that you identify.
You will focus on how the elements of the system are brought into coordination, the
interactions involved, and how the system is ultimately able to achieve a cognitive goal that
cannot be accounted for at the level of any individual component.
ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
1. While you are encouraged to do your own observations of the activity system you
choose, this is n
ot required. If you are unsure the activity system you have chosen to
analyze is appropriate, post your idea to Piazza and we will give feedback/guidance
2. You are not allowed to utilize any specific examples from lecture or the readings as
the basis for your assignment—you must identify and analyze your own example
3. You are not allowed to use an airline cockpit or ship’s navigation crew/system as an
existing example of a DCOG human activity system (thoroughly covered by Hutchins)
4. Don’t be afraid to be creative and to engage critically with the ideas you have been
exposed to in the class, but make sure that you are careful and deliberate in how you
approach the prompts below, and especially in how you tie them together
WHAT YOU’LL DO (writing prompt):
1. Describe an existing human activity system that is an example of distributed
cognition occuring “in the wild”
2. Explain the relevance and consequences of the unit of analysis in this context
3. Detail the emergent properties that arise from the interactions in the system
4. Apply the framework of DCOG to a thoughtful analysis of the system
5. Explicate the c
ognitive accomplishment(s) of the system
6. Elaborate the importance of the s
ocial and cultural elements of this DCOG system
7. Reflect on and draw connections to earlier course themes/concepts
ASSIGNMENT REQUIREMENTS
1. Demonstrate a clear understanding of DCOG concepts: unit of analysis, emergence,
cognitive accomplishment, division of cognitive labor, coordination of parts,
propagation of representations, temporal distribution, social and cultural distribution
2. Thoughtfully and thoroughly discuss the relationships between these concepts, and
directly relate them to your analysis in an insightful and meaningful way
3. Practice critical thinking to identify and discuss how your analysis thoughtfully
addresses the prompts above, using evidence to support your claims and arguments
4. Write a coherent and concise paper that satisfies all assigned requirements
ADDITIONAL GUIDANCE CAN BE FOUND ON PAGE 2
COGS 102A, FALL ‘18 — Assignment 2
2
CITATION REQUIREMENTS AND FORMATTING
● You must cite a minimum of three (3) relevant readings from class
● Must use APA formatting (see owl.english.purdue.edu for a style guide) for both
in-text citations as well as list of references—be consistent. No abstract/title page is
required—APA formatting is for citations only
● No shallow citations. If you cite a source, explain its relevance and importance to
the topic under discussion in enough detail to demonstrate a clear/salient
connection
DOCUMENT SPECIFICATIONS
● Length: 3(min) to 5(max) pages, double spaced, 12 pt typeface, standard margins
● Title: Please give your paper a title at the top of the document
● Sections/headings: you are encouraged to use appropriate sections and heading to
structure your document and provide context for the reader. These should not take
the place of actual body content as it relates to the expected length of your paper
This excerpt from
Cognition in the Wild.
Edwin Hutchins.
© 1995 The MIT Press.
is provided in screen-viewable form for personal use only by members
of MIT CogNet.
Unauthorized use or dissemination of this information is expressly
forbidden.
If you have any questions about this material, please contact
cognetadmin@cognet.mit.edu.
1 W~ W118
Aboatd
N8T8tive: A ~
After several days at sea, the U .SiS. Palau was returning to port ,
making approximately 10 knots in the narrow channel between
Ballast Point and North Island at the entrance to San Diego Harbor .
In the pilothouse or navigation bridge , two decks above the flight
deck , a junior officer had the conn (ie ., was directing the steering of
the ship ), under the supervision of the navigator . The captain sat
quietly in his chair on the port side of the pilothouse watching the
work of the bridge team. Morale in the pilothouse had sagged during
two frustrating hours of engineering drills conducted just outside
the mouth of the harbor but was on the rise now that the ship
'
was headed toward the pier . Some of the crew talked about where
they should go for dinner ashore and joked about going all the way
to the pier at 15 knots so they could get off the ship before nightfall .
The bearing recorder had just given the command " Stand by to
mark time 3 8 " and the fathometer operator was reporting the depth
of the water under the ship when the intercom erupted with the
voice of the engineer of the watch : " Bridge , Main Control . I am
'
losing steam drum pressure . No apparent cause. I m shutting my
"
throttles . Moving quickly to the intercom , the conning officer acknowledged
: " Shutting throttles , aye." The navigator moved to the
' s chair
"
, repeating : Captain , the engineer is losing steam on
captain
the boiler for no apparent cause." Possibly because he realized that
the loss of steam might affect the steering of the ship , the conning
officer ordered the rudder amidships . As the helmsman spun the
wheel to bring the rudder angle indicator to the centerline , he answered
the conning officer : " Rudder amidships , aye sir ." The captain
"
"
began to speak , saying Notify , but the engineer was back on
the intercom , alarm. in his voice this time , speaking rapidly , almost
"
'
shouting : Bridge , Main Control , I m going to secure number two
boiler at this time . Recommend you drop the anchor ! " The captain
had been stopped in mid -sentence by the blaring intercom , but before
the engineer could finish speaking the captain said , in a loud
but cool voice , " Notify the bosun ." It is standard procedure on
Chapter1 2
large ships to have an anchor prepared to drop in case the ship
loses its ability to maneuver while in restricted waters . With the
propulsion plant out , the bosun , who was standing by with a crew
forward ready to drop the anchor , was notified that he might be
called into action . The falling intonation of the captain ' s command
gave it a cast of resignation or perhaps boredom and made it sound
entirely routine .
In fact , the situation was anything but routine . The occasional
cracking voice , a muttered curse , or a perspiration -soaked shirt
on this cool spring afternoon told the real story : the Palau was
not fully under control , and careers and possibly lives were in
jeopardy .
The immediate consequences of this event were potentially
'
grave . Despite the crew s correct responses, the loss of main steam
put the ship in danger . Without steam, it could not reverse its propeller
- the only way to slow a large ship efficiently . The friction of
the water on the ship ' s hull will eventually reduce its speed, but
the Palau would coast for several miles before coming to a stop .
The engineering officer ' s recommendation that the anchor be
dropped was not appropriate . Since the ship was still traveling at a
high rate of speed, the only viable option was to attempt to keep the
ship in the deep water of the channel and coast until it had lost
enough speed to safely drop anchor .
Within 40 seconds of the report of loss of steam pressure , the
steam drum was exhausted . All steam-turbine -operated machinery
came to a halt , including the turbine generators that produce the
'
ship s electrical power . All electrical power was lost throughout
the ship , and all electrical devices without emergency power
backup ceased to operate . In the pilothouse a high -pitched alarm
sounded for a few seconds , signaling an under -voltage condition
for one piece of equipment . Then the pilothouse fell eerily silent as
the electric motors in the radars and other devices spun down and
stopped . Just outside the navigation bridge , the port wing pelorus
operator watched the gyrocompass card in his pelorus swing wildly
and then return to its original heading . He called in to the bearing
recorder standing at the chart table : " John, this gyro just went
nuts ." The bearing recorder acknowledged the comment and told
the pelorus operator that a breakdown was in progress : " Yeah , I
know , I know , we 're havin ' a casualty ."
Because the main steering gear is operated with electric motors ,
the ship now not only had no way to arrest its still -considerable
W Alcnm A Aboard 3
forward motion ; it also had no way to quickly change the angle of
its rudder . The helm does have a manual backup system , located in
a compartment called aftersteering in the stem of the ship : a worm gear mechanism powered by two men on bicycle cranks . However ,
even strong men working hard with this mechanism can change the
angle of the massive rudder only very slowly .
Shortly after the loss of power , the captain said to the navigator ,
who was the most experienced conning officer on board , " OK ,
Gator , I ' d like you to take the conn ." The navigator answered " Aye ,
sir " and , turning away from the captain , announced : " Attention in
the pilothouse . This is the navigator . I have the conn ." As required ,
the quartermaster of the watch acknowledged (" Quartermaster ,
"
"
"
aye ) and the helmsman reported Sir , my rudder is amidships .
The navigator had been looking out over the bow of the ship , trying
to detect any turning motion . He answered the helmsman : " Very
well . Right 5 degrees rudder ." Before the helmsman could reply ,
the navigator increased the ordered angle : " Increase your rudder
"
right 10 degrees. (The rudder angle indicator on the helm station
has two parts ; one shows the rudder angle that is ordered and the
other the actual angle of the rudder .) The helmsman spun the
wheel , causing the indicator of the desired rudder angle to move to
the right 10 degrees, but the indicator of the actual rudder angle
"
seemed not to move at all . " Sir , I have no helm sir ! he reported .
Meanwhile , the men on the cranks in aftersteering were straining
to move the rudder to the desired angle . Without direct helm control
'
, the conning officer acknowledged the helmsman s report and
sought to make contact with aftersteering by way of one of the
"
"
phone talkers on the bridge : Very well . Aftersteering , Bridge . The
"
navigator then turned to the helmsman and said Let me know if
"
you get it back . Before he could finish his sentence , the helmsman
" I have it back sir ." When the
,
navigator acknowledged
responded ,
the report , the ship was on the right side of the channel but heading
far to the left of the desired course. " Very well , increase your rudder
to right 15." " Aye sir . My rudder is right 15 degrees. No new
course given ." The navigator acknowledged - " Very well " - and
then , looking out over the bow , whispered " Come on , damn it ,
"
swing ! Just then , the starboard wing pelorus operator spoke on the
'
"
phone circuit : John , it looks like we re gonna hit this buoy over
here." The bearing recorder had been concentrating on the chart
and hadn 't quite heard . " Say again " he requested . The starboard
wing pelorus operator leaned over the railing of his platform to
Chapter1 4
watch the buoy pass beneath him . It moved quickly down the side
of the ship , staying just a few feet from the hull . When it appeared
that the Palau would not hit the buoy , the starboard wing pelorus
"
'"
operator said Nothin ; that ended the conversation . The men inside
never knew how close they had come. Several subsequent
helm commands were answered with " Sir , I have no helm ." When
asked by the captain how he was doing , the navigator , referring to
their common background as helicopter pilots , quipped " First time
I ever dead-sticked a ship , captain ." (To " dead-stick " an aircraft is
to fly it after the engine has died .) Steering a ship requires fine
'
judgements of the ship s angular velocity . Even if helm response
was instantaneous , there would still be a considerable lag between
the time a helm command was given and the time when the ship ' s
response to the changed rudder angle was first detectable as the
movement of the bow with respect to objects in the distance .
Operating with this manual system , the navigator did not always
know what the actual rudder angle was , and could not know how
long to expect to wait to see if the ordered command was having
the desired effect. Because of the slowed response time of the rudder
, the navigator ordered more extreme rudder angles than usual ,
causing the Palau to weave erratically from one side of the channel
to the other .
Within 3 minutes , the diesel -powered emergency generators
were brought on line and electrical power was restored to vital
systems throughout the ship . Control of the rudder was partially
restored , but remained intermittent for an additional 4 minutes .
Although the ship still could not control its speed, it could at least
now keep itself in the dredged portion of the narrow channel . On
the basis of the slowing over the first 15 minutes after the casualty ,
it became possible to estimate when and where the Palau would be
moving slowly enough to drop anchor . The navigator conned the
ship toward the chosen spot .
About 500 yards short of the intended anchorage , a sailboat took
a course that would lead it to cross close in front of the Palau .
Normally the Palau would have sounded five blasts with its enormous
horn to indicate disagreement with the actions taken by the
other vessel. However , the Palau ' s horn is a steam whistle , and
without steam pressure it will not sound . The Navigation Department
has among its equipment a small manual foghorn , basically a
bicycle pump with a reed and a bell . The navigator remembered
Welcome Aboard 5
this
take
,
blasts
.
and
gear
find
,
post
deck
a
of
piece
his
the
the
The
horn
of
keeper
- talkie
walkie
the
instructed
manual
to
horn
the
out
to
the
deck
bow
the
deck
two
and
,
ran
log
maintain
of
keeper
descend
,
sound
from
to
the
the
to
log
levels
five
,
with
the
flight
warning
pilothouse
communication
leave
the
carrying
.
bridge
The
'
captain
the
grabbed
for
microphone
the
deck
flight
s
address
public
"
"
and
system
Can
asked
hear
you
me
on
the
deck
flight
?
Men
below
"
on
the
deck
turned
and
waved
the
at
up
.
pilothouse
Sailboat
'
Palau
crossing
s
bow
be
advised
that
I
am
not
. . .
I
have
no
.
power
"
You
of
cross
the
at
your
sailboat
sails
its
men
had
were
on
the
and
begun
clear
.
the
the
by
horn
would
who
was
be
,
.
time
he
would
holding
yards
the
bow
the
island
to
it
,
goal
was
from
signal
turned
,
between
lay
his
to
the
had
log
of
that
the
watch
deck
base
halfway
navigator
to
the
the
the
only
,
a
the
officer
junior
"
-
walkie
was
reach
. The
meaningless
a
he
hull
and
ship
bow
of
100
, the
foreground
the
from
time
the
the
keeper
nearly
Before
In
to
emerged
the
of
.
the
this
By
bow
running
,
stairs
bow
power
the
now
across
.
pilothouse
Meanwhile
of
flights
and
that
the
were
deck
sprinting
island
no
under
from
flight
two
have
disappeared
collision
down
. I
risk
visible
impending
run
the
own
talkie
and
exclaimed
tell
Just
him
to
"
the
put
sucker
the
and
,
passed
down
the
flight
.
the
by
Palau
and
.
A
the
to
were
Twenty
the
the
required
later
take
a
up
the
,
.
its
keeper
there
position
still
,
case
the
of
from
the
,
sailing
deck
the
in
signal
visible
emerged
of
of
was
ahead
was
sailboat
The
middle
the
directly
mast
was
message
the
whether
was
of
tip
bow
after
minutes
at
of
arrival
the
continued
log
other
warnings
no
the
nor
captain
of
brought
to
perform
to
safely
this
the
nor
-
task
Some
due
,
in
was
outside
just
kept
of
them
-
alone
control
of
were
to
part
the
of
thinking
happening
navigator
neither
chief
kinds
Many
large
especially
acting
quartermaster
have
.
.
bridge
the
could
anchor
was
crew
bridge
on
water
ample
more
Palau
.
anchor
the
navigator
team
navigation
it
at
Palau
individual
single
in
the
,
begun
location
navigation
the
had
channel
seamanship
But
ride
and
casualty
engineering
wild
intended
the
of
exceptional
the
the
where
anchor
the
and
to
bounds
safe
.
seconds
from
to
the
The
five
miles
brought
by
The
from
know
then
the
!
sounded
to
way
only
times
.
-
2
no
starboard
bow
five
were
which
,
few
required
than
is
that
the
it
blasts
There
close
under
hit
feeble
sailboat
so
pilothouse
from
five
deck
heard
and
supervising
the
ship
were
in
Chapter1 8
parallel , some in coordination with others , some inside the heads
of individuals , and some quite clearly both inside and outside the
heads of the participants .
This book is about the above event and about the kind of system
in which it took place . It is about human cognition - especially
human cognition in settings like this one , where the problems that
individuals confront and the means of solving them are culturally
structured and where no individual acting alone is entirely responsible
for the .outcomes that are meaningful to the society at
large .
Gaining access to this field site required me , as an ethnographer ,
to make three journeys at once. In this first chapter I will try to
weave them together , for the reader will also have to make these
journeys mentally in order to understand the world of military ship
navigation . The first is a journey through physical space from my
home and my usual workplace to the navigation bridge of the
Palau . This journey took me through many gates, as I moved from
the street to the military base, to the ship , and within the ship to the
navigation bridge . I will try to convey the spatial organization of
the setting in which navigation is performed . The second journey is
a trip through social space in which I moved from the civilian social
world past the ship ' s official gatekeepers into the social organization
of the Navy , and then to the ship ' s Navigation Department .
This journey closely parallels the journey through physical space
because space is so often used as an element of social organization .
As the spatial journey took me to regions with narrower and narrower
boundaries , so the social journey leads us through successively
narrower levels of social organization . The third journey is a
movement through conceptual space, from the world of everyday
spatial cognition into the technical world of navigation . This third
journey does not really begin until I near the end of the other two .
Ile MailGate
TI I' ouah
A crisp salute from a young marine in dress uniform at the main
'
"
"
gate s guard shack marked the transition from the street to the
" base" - from the
civilian realm to the military . The base is a place
of close -cropped haircuts and close-cropped lawns . Here nature
and the human form are control led , arranged , disciplined , ready to
make a good impression . In boot camp inductee ' s credo is : " If it
Welcome Aboard 7
moves , salute it . If it doesn 't move , pick it up . If you can 't pick it
"
up , paint it white . The same mindset imposes an orderliness and a
predictability on both the physical space and the social world of
the military base.
As a civilian employee of the Navy , I was encouraged to occasionally
ride a ship in order to better understand the nature of the
"
"
operational world . But being encouraged by my own organization
to ride a ship and being welcomed by the crew are two different
things . From the perspectives of the people running a ship ,
there may be little to gain from permit ting a civilian on board . Civilians
, who are often ignorant of shipboard conventions , may require
some tending to keep them out of trouble . They take up living
space, which on many ships is at a premium , and if they do not
have appropriate security clearances they may have to be escorted
at all times .
The.
The Palau is an amphibious helicopter nansport . Its warfare mission
is to nansport marines across the seas and then deliver them to
the battlefields in the 25 helicopters that are carried on board . The
helicopters also bring noops back to the ship , which has a small
hospital and a complete operating theater . Ships of this class are
often mistaken for true aircraft carriers of the sort that carry jet
planes . As is the case with true aircraft carriers , the hull is capped
by a large flat flight deck which creates an overhang on all sides of
the ship . But this flight deck is only 592 feet long , just over half the
length of a carrier deck and much too small to handle fixed -wing
jets.. About halfway between the bow and the stem , jutting up out of
the smooth expanse of the flight deck on the starboard rail , stands a
four -story structure called the island . The island occupies the
rightmost 20 feet of the flight deck , which is about 100 feet wide .
The ship extends 28 feet below the surface of the water and weighs
17,000 tons empty . It is pushed through the water by a single propeller
driven by a 22 ,000-horsepower steam turbine engine .
'
Originally , the ships of the Palau s class were planned to have
been almost 200 feet longer and to have two propulsion plants and
two propellers . However , budget cuts in the early 1960s led to a
hasty redesign . In the original design , the off -center weight of the
steel island was to be balanced by the second propulsion plant .
Chapter1 8
Unfortunately , the redesign failed to take into account the decrease
in righting moment caused by the deletion of the second engine .
When the hull that is now the Palau was launched , it capsized ! It
was refloated , and the steel island was replaced with an aluminum
one. The ship was renamed and put into service . The aluminum
island is attached to the steel deck with steel bolts . In a wet and
salty environment , this forms an electrolyte that causes corrosion of
the attachment points between the island and the deck . There is a
standing joke among those who work in the island that someday , in
a big beam swell , the ship will roll to starboard and the island will
simply topple off the deck into the sea.
Two levels above the flight deck in the island is the navigation
bridge . Also in the island are the air operations office , from which
the helicopters are control led , and a flag bridge where an admiral
and his staff can work . The top of the island bristles with radar
antennae.
- lie OilerNavIes
TheGator
Navy
When I first went aboard the Palau it was tied up at pier 4 with
several other amphibious ships . A frigate and a destroyer were tied
up to an adjacent pier , but they are part of another navy within the
Navy . Membership in these navies is an important component of
naval identity .
Troop transport is not considered a glamorous job in the Navy .
The Palau is part of what is called the amphibious fleet , the portion
of the fleet that delivers marines to battlegrounds on land . The
amphibious fleet is also known somewhat derogatorily as the
"
"
gator navy . The nickname is apparently derived from a reference
to that amphibious reptile , the alligator . While the alligator is not
a prototypical amphibian , its aggressiveness may be important
in Navy culture ; " salamander navy " or " frog navy " might be too
disparaging .
The aviation community (the " airdales " ) claims to be the highest
-status branch of the Navy . Most others would say that the submarine
fleet (the " nukes " ) comes next , although the submariners
consider themselves a breed apart . (They have a saying that there
are only two kinds of ships in the navy : submarines and targets.)
Then comes the surface fleet (the " black shoes" ). Within each of
these groups are subgroupings , which are also ranked . In the sur -
WelcomeAboard 8
face fleet the ranking descends from surface combatants (cruisers ,
destroyers , and frigates ) to aircraft carriers , then the amphibious
fleet , and finally tenders and supply ships .
While from the civilian point of view a sailor may be a sailor , in
the Navy these distinctions mark important subcultural identities .
The perceived differences are based on many factors , including the
"
"
glamor of the expected mission , the sophistication of the equipment
, the destructive potential , the stringency of requirements for
entry into each area, the quality and extent of the training provided
to the members of each community , and the general sense of the
quality of the people involved . For a surface warfare officer who
hopes to make a career out of the Navy and rise to a high rank , it is
not good to be assigned to an amphibious ship for too long .
Ships that carry aircraft and air crewmen present a special situation
with respect to these groups . Because they have aircraft they
have members of the aviation community aboard , but because they
are ships they must have members of the surface community
aboard. The commanding officer of an aircraft carrier is always a
member of the air community - a measure of the notion in the navy
that the air wing is the raison d 'efre of a ship that carries aircraft .
The friction between the air community and the surface community
may be manifested in subtle and not -so-subtle ways . If members
of the air community account for the majority of the high ranking positions on a ship , junior surface warfare officers may
"
"
complain that junior airdales are given more opportunities for
qualification and advancement . An amphibious transport with an
air wing is an even more complicated situation . Here members of
the surface and air groups interact . And when marines are aboard
an amphibious ship , there is also sometimes friction between the
sailors and the marines .
These patterns of differentiation are present at all levels of organization
in the military , from the broadest of interservice rivalries
to distinctions between the occupants of adjacent spaces on the
ship . Such effects are present to some degree in many social organizations
, but they are highly elaborated in the military . Much of
the establishment of identity is expressed in propositions like this :
" We are the
'
fighting X s. We are proud of what we are and what we
do. We are unlike any other group ." The unspoken inference is " If
"
you do something else, you cannot be quite as good as we are.
Identities are also signaled by insignia and emblems of various
Chapter1 10
kinds . In the officer ranks , breast insignia denote which navy one is
in . Aviators wear wings , submariners wear dolphins , surface warfare
officers wear cutlass es.
Within each part of the surface fleet , there are strong identities
associated with specific ships . Ships have stirring nationalistic or
patriotic mottoes , which are often inscribed on plaques , baseball
caps, t -shirts , and coffee mugs . Many ships produce yearbooks . The
bond among shipmates is strongest when they are off ship . There is
less of an identification with the class of one ' s ship , but some
classes of ship are considered more advanced (less obsolete ) and
more glamorous than others .
The military institutionalizes competition at all levels of organization
. Individuals compete with one another , and teams of
individuals are pitted against other teams. Ships compete in exercises
, and branch es of the military compete for funding and the
opportunity to participate in combat . Aboard a ship this competitivenes
manifests itself in a general opinion that " we in our
space know what we are doing , but the people just on the other side
of the bulkhead do not ." These sentiments can arise in situations
where the successful completion of some task relies on cooperation
between individuals in different spaces. Sometimes the larger system
may fail for reasons having to do with the interactions of the
units rather than with any particular unit ; still , each unit needs to
attach blame somewhere , and the alleged incompetence of some
other unit is the easiest and most understandable explanation .
AcrO8811e
Brow
A sailor standing outside a guard shack glances at the identification
badge of each person passing onto the pier . Walking onto a pier
between two ships of the Palau ' s class is like walking into a deep
canyon with overhanging gray walls and a dirty concrete floor . The
canyon is vaguely threatening . It is noisy , and the hulls of the ships
seem to box in the whine of motors and the hiss of compressed air .
There are trucks and cranes on the pier , and cables are suewn
across the pier and suspended in space over the narrow band of
greenish water between the pier and the hulls . Floating in the water
between each ship and the pier are several crude rafts called
" camels " and a work
barge. The camels keep the hull of the ship far
enough away from the pier so that the broad flight deck flaring out
at the top of the hull does not overhang the pier .
WelcomeAboard 11
To board the Palau , I climbed a sort of scaffold up a few flights of
gray metal stairs to a gangplank (in Navy parlance , the brow ) that
reached from the top of the scaffold to a huge hole in the side of the
ship . The hole was at the level of the hangar deck (also called the
main deck ), still several levels below the flight deck . At the top of
the brow was a security desk where the officer of the deck (ODD )
checked the identification cards of sailors departing from and returning
to the ship . Sailors stepping aboard turned to face the stem
of the ship , came to attention and saluted the ship ' s ensign (flag ),
which flew on a staff over the fantail and was thus not visible from
the brow .
Before visiting the ship , I had been given the NPRDC Fleet visi tor ' s guide of basic information , which included the following instructions
for proper performance of the boarding ritual : " At the
top of the brow or accommodation ladder , face aft toward the colors
(national ensign ) and pause at attention . Then turn to the ODD ,
'
pause briefly at attention , and say, Request permission to come
'
aboard , Sir . State your name , where you are from , the purpose of
"
your visit and the person you wish to see. This little ritual is a
symbolic pledge of allegiance to the ship before boarding . Visitors
to the ship wait in limbo at the security desk , neither ashore nor
officially aboard , while word of their arrival is sent to their onboard
host . The actual permission to go aboard must have been arranged
in advance.
The ship ' s official gatekeeper is normally the executive officer
(abbreviated XO ) . The commanding officer , the executive officer ,
and the department heads form the primary administrative structure
of the ship . Every ship in the Navy is organized into a number
of departments . Each department is supervised by an officer . In
large departments , the department head may supervise less senior
officers , who in turn supervise the enlisted personnel who do virtually
all the actual work on the ship . Before embarking , I was required
to convince the XO that I had something to offer the navy
and that I would not cause undue aggravation while aboard. In a
brief and somewhat discouraging interview with the XO , it was
agreed that if the navigator was willing to tolerate my presence in
his department , I could come aboard and work with the navigation
team.
After getting past the XO , I made a date to have lunch with the
'
navigator . I met him in the officer s dining area (the wardroom ), and
during our discussion we discovered a shared past . While a cadet at
Chapter1 12
the Naval Academy , the navigator had served as racing tactician
aboard a particular racing sloop that had been donated to the
academy . The sloop was subsequently sold to a friend of mine , and
I had sailed aboard it as navigator and racing tactician for 8 years .
The discovery of this extraordinary coincidence helped cement our
'
friendship and secured the navigator s permission for my work
aboard the Palau . With my prearranged permission to sail , and
with the navigator ' s blessing , I waited at the security desk.
An escort at the security desk and led me through the huge dark
cavern of the hangar deck. We detoured around several parked
helicopters and skirted forklifts and pallets of materials . We
ducked through a hatch in the wall of the hangar deck and began
the climb up a series of narrow steep ladders to the navigation
bridge . (On a ship , tIoors are called decks, walls are called bulkheads
or partitions , corridors are called passageways, ceilings are
called overheads , and stairs are called ladders .)
R8CO
ilCiI1glie Ch8t- lie World
Navigation is a collection of techniques for answering a small
number of questions, perhaps the most central of which is " Where
am 11"
What does the word ' where ' mean in this question ? When we say
or understand or think where we are, we do so in terms of some
"
"
representation of possible positions . Where am I? is a question
about correspondences between the surrounding world and some
representation of that world .
Where am I right now as I write this ? I am at my desk , in my
study . The window in front of me faces the garden ; the door over
there leads to the hallway that leads to the remainder of the house.
'
My house is on the Pacific coast , north of the university . I m on the
'
western edge of the North American continent . I m on the planet
Earth circling a minor star in the outer portion of an arm of a spiral
galaxy . In every one of these descriptions , there is a representation
of space assumed. Each of these descriptions of my location has
meaning only by virtue of the relationships between the location
described and other locations in the representation of space implied
by the description . This is an absolutely fundamental problem
that must be solved by all mobile organisms .
Whether the map is internal or external , whether it is a mental
image of surrounding space (on whatever scale and in whatever
Welcome Aboard 13
terms ) or a symbolic description of the space on a piece of paper , I
must establish the correspondence of map and territory in order to
answer the question " Where am I?" One of the most exciting moments
in navigation is making a landfall on an unfamiliar coast. If I
am making a landfall on a high island or a mountainous coast , as I
approach the land , I first see just the tops of mountains , then I see
the lower slopes , then the hills , and finally the features on the
shoreline itself . Now , where am I? Turning to my chart , I see that I
had hoped to meet the coast just to the south of a major headland .
Perhaps that big hill I can see across the water on the left is that
headland . And perhaps that high peak off in the haze , inland , is
this peak shown on the chart . Hmm , according to the hart it is
~
meters high . It seems far away and higher
only supposed to be
than that . Perhaps it is something else, something too far inland to
be printed on the chart .
Through considerations like these , a navigator attempts to establish
a coherent set of correspondences between what is visible in
the world and what is depicted on a chart . Some charts even provide
small profiles showing the appearance of prominent landmarks
from particular sea-level vantage points . The same sort of
task confronts any of us when , for example , we walk out of the
back door of a theater onto an unfamiliar street. Which way am I
facing ? Where am I? The question is answered by establishing cor respondences between the features of the environment and the
features of some representation of that environment . When the
navigator is satisfied that he has arrived at a coherent set of corre "
spondences , he might look to the chart and say Ah , yes; I am here ,
"
off this point of land . Now the navigator knows where he is. And it
is in this sense that most of us feel we know where we are. We feel
that we have achieved a reconciliation between the features we see
in our world and a representation of that world . Things are not out
of place . They are where we expect them to be. But now suppose
someone asks a navigator " How far are we from the town at the
head of that bay ?" To answer that question , simply having a good
sense of the correspondences between what one sees and what is
depicted on some representation of the local space is not enough .
Now more precision is required . To answer that question the navigator
needs to have a more exact determination of where he is . In
particular , he needs to have a sense of his location on a representation
of space in a form that will permit him to compute the
answer to the question . This is position fixing . It is what one does
Chapter1 14
when just having a sense of reconciliation
and the map is not enough .
between the territory
UpIII Ladder
From the hangar deck the escort led the way up three steep ladders
in a narrow stairwell filled with fluorescent light , stale air , and the
clang of hard shoes on metal steps. The decks of a ship are numbered
starting with the main deck. On most ships , the main deck is
defined as the " uppermost deck that runs the length of the ship ."
On ships that have a flight deck above a hangar deck (this includes
aircraft carriers and amphibious helicopter transports such as the
Palau ) the hangar deck is the main deck . Immediately below the
main deck is the second deck , and below that the third deck , and so
on down to the hold . Above the main deck , the decks are designated
" levels " and are numbered 01 02 . . .
, increasing in number
, ,
with altitude . We stopped periodically on deck platforms to
allow sailors going down to pass. Foot traffic on ships generally
moves up and forward on the starboard side and down and aft on
the port side . However , the layout of the hangar deck limits the
number and location of ladders , and in order to shorten the route
my escort was taking me against the traffic . We climbed into a small
busy foyer , and through an open hatch I caught a breath of fresh air
and a glimpse of the flight deck in the sun . Men in overalls were
working on the hot , rough black surface. We continued upward ,
now climbing inside the narrow island . One ladder pitch above the
flight deck we came to the 04 level . The door leading to the flag
bridge , where an admiral and his staff would work , was chained
and padlocked . One more ladder brought us to the 05 level .
~ ui&
I1d6I
MIt8Y
The men and women in the military are divided into two broad
social classes: officer and enlisted . An officer must have a college
degree and is commissioned (authorized to act in command ). In
the Navy , members of both classes believe in the reality of differences
between officers and enlisted personnel . The lowest -ranking
officer is superior in the command structure to the highest -ranking
enlisted person . The distinction between officers and enlisted
is marked by uniforms , by insignia , and by a complex set of rituals
. The simplest of these rituals is the salute , of course , but the
Welcome Aboard 15
courtesiesto be extended by enlisted to officers include clearing a
passagewayon the approach of an officer and refraining from overtaking
an officer on foot until permission has been granted.
E* t8d Rates- R8ti1g8
Enlisted personnel are classified according to pay grade (called
rate ) and technical specialization (called rating ). As Bearden and
Wedertz (1978) explain : " A rating is a Navy job - a duty calling for
certain skills and attitudes . The rating of engineman , for example ,
calls for persons who are good with their hands and are mechanically
inclined . A paygrade (such as E-4 , E-5, E-6) within a rating is
called a rate. Thus an engineman third class (EN3) would have a
rating of engineman , and a rate of third class petty officer . The term
petty officer (PO) applies to anyone in paygrades E-4 through E-9.
E- ls through E-3s are called non -rated personnel ."
The enlisted naval career begins with what is basically asocial ization period in which the recruit is indoctrinated into basic military
policy and acquires the fundamental skills of a sailor . The rates
through which a recruit passes in this phase are seaman recruit ,
seaman apprentice , and able-bodied seaman. Once socialized , a
seaman learns the skills of a particular job specialization or rating .
An enlisted person is considered a real member of a rating when he
becomes a petty officer (see below ). The enlisted personnel in the
Navigation Department are members of the quartermaster rating .
'
They have an insignia (a ship s wheel ) and an identity distinct from
other ratings . They are generally considered to be relatively intelligent
, although not as smart as data processing specialists . For
enlisted personnel , rating insignia denote occupational fields .
A petty officers is not a kind of commissioned officer (the type of
officer referred to by the unmarked term ' officer ' ); the label ' petty
officer ' simply designates an enlisted person who is a practicing
members of some rating . There are two major levels of petty officer ,
with three rates within each. One moves through the lowest of
these levels while learning the skills of the speciality of the rating .
One advances through petty officer third class, petty officer second
class, and petty officer first class. A petty officer third class is a
novice in the speciality ,and may perform low -level activities in
concert with others or more autonomous functions " under instruction
." A petty officer first class is expected to be fully competent in
the rating .
Chapter1 18
The next step up in rank moves one to the higher of the enlisted
rates and is usually the most important transition of an enlisted
'
person s career. This is the move to chief petty officer (CPO) . This
change in status is marked by a ritual of initiation which is
shrouded in secrecy . Just what happens at a chiefs initiation is
supposed to be known only by chiefs . However , much of what
happens apparently makes for such good story telling that it cannot
be kept entirely in confidence . It is " common knowledge " that
these initiations frequently include hazing of the initiate , drunkenness
, and acts of special license . Making chief means more than
getting a bigger pay packet or supervising more people . Chiefs have
their own berthing spaces (more private that general enlisted
berthing ) and their own mess (eating facility ). On many ships the
chiefs mess is reputed to be better than that of the officers . Chiefs
are also important because they are the primary interface between
officers and enlisted personnel . Since they typically have from 12
to 20 years of experience in their speciality , they often take part in
problem -solving sessions with the officers who are their supervisors
. Some chief petty officers have a considerable amount of autonomy
on account of their expertise (or , perhaps , their expertise
relative to the supervising officer .) Chiefs frequently talk about
"
"
having to break in a new officer , by which they mean getting a
supervising officer accustomed to the fact that the chief knows
more than the officer does and is actually in charge of the space and
the people in it . Officers who directly supervise lower -level enlisted
personnel risk undermining the chain of command and incurring
the resentment of a chief who feels that his authority has
been usurped . Once one has made chief , there are still higher enlisted
rates to be attained . After approximately 20 years of service a
competent person may make senior chief , and after perhaps 25
years of service ( being now of about the same age as a captain ) one
may make master chief . That is normally the end of the line for
an enlisted person . There are, however , some ranks that fall between
enlisted and officer . A chief may elect to become a chief
warrant officer or a limited duty officer (LDO ). A chief who becomes
an LDO is commissioned as an ensign and may begin to rise
through the officer ranks . Few chiefs take this path . As one senior
chief asked rhetorically , " Why would I want to go from the top of
one career to the bottom of another ?"
While an enlistee may have preferences for certain ratings , the
choice of a rating is not entirely up to the enlistee . Aptitude -test
WelcomeAboard 17
scores are also used to place people in various specialities . The fact
that people are screened contributes to widely held stereotypes
concerning the intelligence of those in various ratings . For example
'
, boiler technicians (BTs ) and machinist s mates (M Ms ), who
run a ship ' s propulsion plant and who may go weeks without seeing
the light of day , are often the butt of jokes about their low
intelligence . Data processing specialists , on the other hand , are
generally thought to be bright . The ship , as a microcosm , manifests
the same patterns of competing identities that are seen among the
specialties in the Navy as a whole . From the point of view of the
bridge personnel there may be little apparent difference between
machinist ' s mates and boiler technicians , but down in the propulsion
spaces the perceived differences are many . Machinist mates
call boiler technicians " bilge divers ," while boiler technicians call
machinist ' s mates " flange heads." Mostly , this is good -natured
'
teasing ; name calling is a way of asserting one s own identity .
At all levels of organization we see attempts to establish identity
by distinguishing oneself from the other groups . This is relevant to
the discussion that follows because the dynamics of the relationships
among the people engaged in the task of navigation are in
part constrained by these identities .
0IIcer R81ks
Military officers are managers of personnel and resources. In general
, their job is not to get their hands dirty , but to ensure that those
who do get their hands dirty are doing the right things . Unlikeen listed persons , officers do not have narrowly defined specialities .
~ officer pursues a career in one of the broad areas described
above: air , surface , or submarine warfare . Within that area, there
are subspecial ties such as engineering and tactics .
Officers are initially commissioned as ensigns . Ensigns have a
tough lot . They are more visible than the lowest enlisted rates , and
' "
they certainly are given more responsibility , but often a fresh "
caught ensign knows little more about the world of the ship than
the seaman recruit .
', Way
Aro
I IIdaSh~
FldIg One
A ship is a complicated
warren of passages and compartments .
frame
and
is numbered with a code that
Every
compartment
1 18
Chapter
indicates which deck it is on , whether it is to port or starboard of
the centerline , and where it is in the progression from stem to stem .
Navigating inside a ship can be quite confusing to a newcomer . Inside
the ship , the cardinal directions are forward and aft , port and
starboard , topside and below , and inboard and outboard ; north ,
south , east and west are irrelevant . On large ships , orientation can
be a serious problem . In the early 1980' s the Navy sponsored a research
project to work on wayfinding in ships .
The ship is composed of a number of neighborhoods . Some are
workplaces , some are residential . Some are officially dedicated to
recreation , others are unofficially recreational . The fantail on some
classes of ships , for example , is a place to hang out . Officers ' accommoda
and eating facilities are in a section of the ship
called " officer country ." The chief petty officers have a similar area,
called " CPO country ." Enlisted personnel are supposed to enter
these areas only when they are on official business . They are supposed
to remove their hats when entering any compartment in
these neighborhoods . Some passageways inside the ship are major
thoroughfares ; others are alleys or culs -de-sac. A visitor quickly
learns to search out alternative pathways , because corridors are
frequently closed for cleaning or maintenance .
On"
~ Leve
I
As my escort and I arrived at a small platform
on the 05 level , to the
right was a floor -to -ceiling partition painted flat black . Behind the
partition stood an exterior doorway that led out to the starboard
"
"
wing bridge . The partition forms a light trap that prevents light
from leaking out at night when the ship is running dark . To the left
was a dark corridor that led to a similar doorway on the port side of
the island . Above us , the ladder continued upward one more level
to the signal bridge . Ahead lay a narrow passageway. Forward
along the left side of the passageway were two doors . Behind the
first was the captain ' s at-sea cabin . He has a nicely appointed
quarters below , but he takes meals and sleeps in this cabin during
operations that require him to stay near the bridge . The next door
opened on the charthouse . At the end of the passageway, about 25
feet away , was a door that led to the navigation bridge or pilot house.
The charthouse is headquarters for the Navigation Department .
This small room , crowded with navigation equipment , two desks, a
Welcome Aboard 18
safe, and a chart table , enjoys a luxury shared by only a few spaces
on the ship : a single porthole through which natural light may enter
and mix with light from the fluorescent lamps overhead . The
charthouse is one of several spaces under the control of the Navigation
Department . Navigation personnel not only work in these
spaces, they are also responsible for keeping them clean . Since the
'
bridge is one of the main work areas of the ship s captain , it is
thought to be especially important to keep it looking nice . While in
port , Navigation personnel polish the brass on the bridge . Because
the captain ' s at-sea cabin is adjacent to the charthouse , members of
the Navigation Department tend to work more quietly there than
they might in other parts of the ship . Since the average age of a
sailor is under 20 years , a certain amount of playful horsing around
is expected in many parts of the ship , but is not tolerated on the 05
level .
The Navigation Department is responsible for all of the spaces on
the 05 level with the exception of the captain ' s at-sea cabin . It is
also responsible for the secondary or auxiliary conning station
"
"
( Secondary Conn )- a completely redundant navigation bridge
located in the bow , just under the forward edge of the flight deck.
'
Secondary Conn is manned by the ship s executive officer and a
complete navigation team whenever the ship is at general quarters
(battle stations ). This is done because the primary navigation bridge
in the island is very vulnerable if the ship comes under attack .
Modem anti -ship missiles home in on electromagnetic radiation .
Because the radar antennae on the top of the island are the principal
sources of such radiation on the ship , the island is the most
likely part to be hit by a missile . If the primary navigation bridge is
destroyed , the ship can be control led from Secondary Conn under
the command of the executive officer . Secondary Conn is a space
assigned to the Navigation Department and is a duty station for
Navigation personnel , but it will be of little interest to us with regard
'
to the normal practice of navigation . The ship s extensive
library of charts and navigation forms is stored in this space.
The Navigation Department is supervised by the Navigator . At
'
the time the observations reported here were made , the Palau s
Navigation Department consisted of the Navigator and seven enlisted
men . The title " Navigator " refers to the position as head of
'
the Navigation Department rather than to the officer s technical
speciality . Though it is expected that an officer who serves as Navigator
aboard any ship will know enough about navigation to
1.
Chapter
supervise the working of the Navigation Department , Navigators
seldom do any navigating themselves .
The work of the Navigation Department is carried out by enlisted
personnel of the quartermaster rating under the direction of the
Assistant Navigator (a quartermaster chief ).
Navigating
LaIrge
. .
While a naval vessel is underway , a plot of its past and projected
movements is maintained at all times . Such complete records are
not always kept aboard merchant vessels and are not absolutely
essential to the task of navigating a ship in resbicted waters . It is
"
"
possible for an experienced pilot to eyeball the passage and make
judgements concerning control of the ship without the support of
the computations that are carried out on the chart . Aboard naval
vessels, however , such records are always kept - primarily for reasons
of safety , but also for purposes of accountability . Should there
be a problem , the crew will be able to show exactly where the ship
was and what it was doing at the time of the mishap . Day and night ,
whenever a ship is neither tied to a pier nor at anchor , navigation
computations are performed as frequently as is required to ensure
safe navigation . During a long passage, navigation activities may be
performed almost continuously for weeks or even months on end .
Most of the time the work of navigation is conducted by one person
working alone . However , when a ship leaves or enters port , or
operates in any other environment where maneuverability is resbicted , the computational requirements of the task may exceed
the capabilities of any individual ; then the navigation duties are
carried out by a team.
The conning oJ Jicer is nominally responsible for the decisions
about the motion of the ship , but for the most part he does not make
the actual decisions . Usually , such decisions are made by the Navigation
Department and passed to the conning officer as recommendations
"
, such as Recommend coming right to 0 1 7 at this
time ." The conning officer considers the recommendation in the
'
light of the ship s overall situation . If the recommendation is appropriate
, he will act upon it by giving orders to the helmsman ,
who steers the ship , or to the leehelmsman , who controls the engines
. At all times when the ship may have need of navigational
information , someone from the Navigation Department is at work
and ready to do whatever is required . The navigation team per -
WelcomeAboard 21
forms in a variety of configurations , with as few as one and as many
as six members of the Navigation Department working together . In
every configuration there is one individual , designated the quartermaster
of the watch , who is responsible for the quality of the
'
work performed and who serves as the department s official interface
with other departments aboard ship .
Navigation is a specialized task which , in its ordinary operation ,
confronts a limited set of problems , each of which has a well understood structure . The problem that confronts a navigator is
usually not one of figuring out how to process the information in
order to get an answer ; that has already been worked out . The
problem , in most instances , is simply to use the existing tools and
techniques to process the information gathered by the system and
'
to produce an appropriate evaluation of the ship s situation or an
appropriate recommendation about how the ship should proceed
in order to get where it is supposed to go.
The navigation activity is event -driven in the sense that the navigation
team must keep pace with the movements of the ship . In
contrast with many other decision -making settings , when something
goes wrong aboard a ship , it is not an option to quit the task ,
to set it aside momenta rily , or to start over from scratch . The work
must go on. In fact , the conditions under which the task is most
difficult are usually the conditions under which its correct and
timely performance is most important .
1118
A. -&.wl.......I. ldenaty
Having said something about how naval personnel establish their
own identities , I should also say something about how they and I
negotiated an identity for me.
In the course of this work I made firsthand observations of navigation
practice at sea aboard two aircraft carriers (the Constellation
the
and
Ranger ) and two ships of the amphibious fleet (the one
known here as the Palau and the Denver ) . Aboard the aircraft
carriers , I worked both on the navigation bridge and in the combat
information center . I made a passage from San Diego to Seattle ,
with several stops , aboard the Denver . I also interviewed members
of the Navigation Departments of five other ships (the Enterprise ,
the Beleau Wood , the Carl Vinson , the Cook , and the Berkeley )
and had a number of informal conversations with other navigation
personnel .
1 22
Chapter
The events reported here come mainly from operations in the
Southern California Operations (SoCalOps ) area aboard the Palau . I
also worked with the crew while the ship was in port . I logged a
total of 11 days at sea over a period of 4 months . First came a week long hip during which I observed the team , got the members used
to my presence , and got to know them . During this trip , I only took
notes and made a few still photos and audio tape recordings of
navigation tasks and interviews with crewmen . On a later hip , I
mounted a video camera with a wide -angle lens in the overhead
above the chart table in the pilothouse . I placed a stereo tape recorder
on the chart table , with one channel capturing the ambient
noise and conversation of the pilothouse . The other channel I
wired into the sound -powered phone circuit . Because the chief was
both plotting positions and supervising the work of the navigation
team , I wanted to be sure to capture what he said. I therefore wired
him with a remote transmitter and a lavaliere microphone . I used
this signal to feed the audio track on the video recording . Thus , I
had one video track and three audio tracks to work with .
During my time at sea, I took a normal watch rotation . I appeared
on the bridge on one occasion or another during every watch period
, including the one from midnight to 4 aim. I was accorded
privileges appropriate to the military equivalent of my civilian
Government Service rank : lieutenant commander . I was assigned a
cabin in " officer country ," took my meals in the officer ' s mess, and
spent my waking off -watch time either in the charthouse with the
navigation crew or in the wardroom with officers .
As to what they thought of me , one must begin with the understanding
that for military folk the military / civilian distinction
stands just below the friend / foe distinction as an element of the
establishment of identity . A civilian aboard a ship is an outsider by
definition . It was important that the navigator treated me as acol league and friend , and that the captain normally addressed me as
Doctor when we met . Many of the members of the navigation team
were also aware that I had lunched at least once in the captain ' s
quarters , an honor reserved for visiting VI Ps.
Some evidence of what the crew thought of me is available in the
video record . Early on , a number of nervous jokes were made on
camera about the dangerous potential of the videotaping . In the first
5 minutes of videotaping with this crew , the assistant navigator
told the navigator " Everything you say around me is getting recorded
for history , for your court -martial . "
Welcome Aboard 23
On more than one occasion while he was away from the chart
table , the chief of the navigation team explained my work to other
members . He apparently forgot that he was being recorded . I discovered
these comments weeks later while doing transcription .
During my second at sea period , the chief went into the charthouse
to check on the fathometer . The fathometer operator asked who I
was. The conversation proceeded as follows :
'
: He ' s studying navigation on big ships . He s the guy , he
Chief
makes computer programs for teaching stuff . Like they got a big
computer program thing they use in ASW school to teach maneuvering
boards . It ' s all computerized . He is the one that makes it . He
'
is the one who makes things like that . He s a psychologist and an'
thropologist . Works for the navy . He s a PhiD . Makes all kinds of
strange things .
: He makes all kinds of strange money too .
Falhometer
operator
'
: Yeah , does he? He knows what he is doing . He s swift . He
Chief
'
just sits and watches and records everything you re doing . Then he
puts it all in data , then he starts putting it in a program . Figuring
'
out what to do , I don t know .
My most intensive data collection was carried out on a four day
exercise during which the Palau left port , steamed around the
operations area for two days , reentered port , and anchored in the
harbor overnight . The next morning the ship left port again for another
day of exercises. Finally , it entered port again and returned to
its berth at the 32nd Street Naval Station . It was during the last entry
to port that the crisis reported in the opening pages of this book
occurred . The quality of the recording from the sound -powered
phone circuit was poor until I discovered a better way to capture
the signal on the last entry to port . The two entries to and exits from
port were recorded from the time Sea and Anchor Detail was set
until the navigation team stood down . This procedure produced
video and audio tape recordings of about 8 hours of team activity .
Additional recordings were made at various times during Standard
Steaming Watch . In addition to the video and audio records , I took
notes during these events of any aspects of the situation that I noticed
that could not be fully captured on the tapes. Even with the
wide -angle lens , the video camera captured only the surface of the
chart table . This permit ted me to identify features on the chart and
even to know which buttons of a calculator were pressed , but it
1 24
Chapter
meant that many events of interest were not captured on tape because
they occurred out of camera range .
Transcribing the tape recordings was a very difficult process. At
times there were four or more conversations happening simultaneously
in the pilothouse . To make matters worse , ships are noisy
places . There are many kinds of equipment on the bridge that create
'
background noises. The bosun s mate pipes various announcements
from a station just aft and inboard of the chart table , and his
whistle blowing and his public -address messagessometimes drown
out all other sounds . Helicopters may be operating on the flight
deck or in the air just outside the pilothouse . It was often necessary
to listen to each of the three audio tracks separately in order to reconstruct
what was being said , and still in many cases the full
content of the tapes cannot be deciphered . Because of the placement
of the microphones , however , the coverage of the verbal behavior
of the members of the navigation team was uniformly good .
Only rarely was it impossible to determine what was being said
with respect to the navigation task.
I did much of the transcription myself , for three reasons. First ,
this is a technical domain with many specialized words in it . We
know that hearing is itself a constructive process and that ambiguous
inputs are often unconsciously reconstructed and cleaned up
on the basis of context . Lacking context , other transcribers could
not hear what I could hear in the tapes. For example , an untrained
transcriber without expectations about what might be said during
an anchoring detail transcribed " thirty fathoms on deck " as " thirty
"
phantoms on deck . Navigationese is a foreign language to most
people , and quality transcription cannot be expected from a transcriber
who is not fluent in it . Second , since there were many
speakers, the fact that I knew them personally helped me distinguish
the identity of speakers where it was not clearly evident
from the content of a statement who was speaking . Third , and most
important , there is no better way to learn what is actually in a recording
than to listen to it the many times that one must in order to
produce a good transcription . (Over a period of about a year , one
transcription assistant did develop enough familiarity with the
subject to provide usable transcriptions .)
The fact that listening is reconstructive introduces the possibility
of distortions in the data driven by my expectations . I will attempt
to deal with that by making the ethnographic grounds for my interpretation
explicit .
Welcome Aboard .
In the pilothouse I tried not to participate , but only observe. On
only one occasion did I intervene , and that was a case in which I
felt that by failing to speak I would put a number of people in serious
danger . My intervention was a brief sotto voce comment to the
navigator , who resolved the situation without indicating my role in
it .
It was clear that I knew more about the theory of navigation than
the members of the crew I was studying with the exception of the
'
ship s navigator and the quartermaster chief . Of course , knowing
the theory and knowing the nature of the practice in a particular
setting are two quite different things . In no case did I know more
about an individual ' s relation to the practice of navigation than that
individual . Still , this is an unusual situation for an ethnographer .
The web of constraints provided by cultural practices is important
both to the people doing the task and to the researcher. For the
performers , it means that the universe of possible activities is
closely bounded by the constraints . For the researcher , the activ
ities that are observed are interpreted in terms of their reflection of
the constraints . My many years of studying and practicing navigation
made me a particular sort of instrument , one in which the
constraints of the domain were present . My interpretations of the
actions of the members of the navigation team were informed by
many of the same constraints that were guiding their behaviors . But
there was more . Because I attempted to continually make these
constraints explicit , and to conceive of them in a computational
sense as well as in the operational sense required of the navigation
team , my interpretations were not simply those of a native .
A few months of field work is , for an anthropologist , a rather a
short visit . Many aspects of the military culture go unreported here
because I am not confident about their organization and meaning
on the basis of such a short exposure . I did have 5 years of employment
as a civilian scientist working for the Navy , and that gave
me many opportunities to observe aspects of military organization .
The coverage of navigation practice is adequate , I think , because of
the opportunity on my second at-sea period to videotape the navigation
operations on the bridge .
How different would the story be if the observations had been
made aboard another ship ? I do not believe that the culture would
permit it to be very different . The information processed by the
navigation team may move more or less efficiently , and the individual
quartermasters may have better or poorer relationships with
Chapter1 .
one another , but the tasks remain , and the means of performing the
tasks are standardized throughout the fleet . The crews of different
ships may meet the requirements of navigation more or less capably
, but they must nevertheless solve these particular tasks in the
limited number of ways possible .
In fact , I made observations aboard several ships , and my colleague
, Colleen Siefert , did so on yet another ship . The differences
we observed across ships were minor . The ship Colleen observed
had more quartermasters available and was therefore able to organize
its navigation team in a slightly different way ; that however ,
does not present a challenge to my framework or to my basic descriptions
of the nature of the cognition at either the individual or
the group level .
Onlie ~
: Stand8dSt8&I7~.gWatch
At the forward end of the 05 level ' s passageway is the door to the
navigation bridge or pilothouse . It is here that the most important
part of the navigation work is done . The pilothouse occupies the
forward 18 feet of the 05 level of the island (see figure 1.1). Outward
-canting windows extend from chest
height to the overhead on
both sides and the front of the pilothouse . The windows on the port
side and forward overlook the flight deck . All work tables are
mounted on substantial bases on a light greenish linoleum floor .
The walls , the cabinets , and the equipment stands are thickly
coated in light gray paint . The overhead is flat black and tangled
with pipes and cables , their identities stenciled on them in white .
The polished brass of ship ' s wheel and the controls for the engine order telegraph stand out in the otherwise drab space.
The activities of the Navigation Department revolve around a
computational ritual called the fix cycle . The fix cycle has two
major parts : determining the present position of the ship and projecting
its future position . The fix cycle gathers various bits of information
about the ship ' s location in the world and brings them
'
together in a representation of the ship s position . The chart is the
'
positional consciousness of the ship : the navigation fix is the ship s
internal representation of its own location .
When I first made it known to a ship ' s navigator that I wanted to
know how navigation work was performed , he referred me to the
Navigation Department Watch Standing Procedures , a document
that describes the watch configurations . " It ' s all in here ," he said.
Welcome Aboard 27
-
I
'
21
"
I
'
s
Rajars
D
CO
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table
Gyro
:
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J
.
~
:
:
:
:
:
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roI
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r
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:
~
:
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16
00
1
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:
:
:
:
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l
Chart
table
Capfs
Helm
chair
Pilothouse
'
s
~
'
mate
s
Bsn
board
Contact
Door
Door
table
Door
0
0
Pelorus
PelorusFathometer
Charthouse
Starboard
Port
P
assageway
wing
wing
I
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.
.
.
I
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teamdo mostof
and. . dlarItouse.The~ - of lie navigation
FigIn 1.1 A planviewof . . pI~
lie
. Theheavylinef8p1
lleir workat lie cIwt mb
' 8s811ts
Ie, on lie wiIgs, andit lie clld I OI J88
is forwardon' " ship.
exteriorIkiI of ' " ship. Upin ' " d~
" You can read this and save
yourself the trouble of standing
"
watch. Of course it is not all in there, but the normative description
in the Proceduresis not a bad place to start. It is the Navigation
"
' "
Departments omcial version of the organization of its work. This
document is one of many symbolic forms in which navigators
"
"
represent themselves to themselves and to one another (Geertz
1983).
Becausethe procedures refer to objects and places that are part
of shipboard navigation culture , understanding these procedures
will require us to explore the environment of navigation. While
conducting this exploration, we should keep in mind that the
1.
Chapter
'
descriptions of navigation work that appear in a ship s documents
and in various navigation publications must be taken as data rather
than analysis .
In this section I will attempt to use the ship ' s documents as a
guide to the task of navigation . The specifications presented in the
Watch Standing Procedures describe actions to be taken and
equipment and techniques to be used. First I will present the normative
descriptions and try to provide the sort of background information
that might be provided by a native of the navigation
culture , in the hope that this will make these things meaningful to a
reader who is not a practitioner of the art . Later I will present an
analysis of the procedures , tools , and techniques that will be
grounded in information -processing theory rather than in the world
of ship navigation .
The Palau ' s normal steaming watch procedures are introduced as
follows :
Whilein normal
condition
at - . lie following
watchprocedtN wiNbeadhered
to
steaning
as closely
as DO
as nec8aryby sibJations
SIible, modified
bey
OI1dtheconboIof thewatch
stander
.
In normal steaming, a single quartermasteris responsible for all
the navigation duties. The procedures described in the document
are taken seriously , although it is recognized that it may not be
possible to execute them as described in all circumstances . The
normative procedures are an ideal that is seldom achieved , or seldom
achieved as described .
1118
Prinary
Dutyoflie QMOW
When the Navigation Department is providing navigation services
to the ship, a particular quartermasteris designatedas the quarter
master of the watch (QMOW) at all times. According to the procedures
,
ThePrinary
oflie QMOW
is. . safenavigation
. ToUIisendheshalt
of. . ship
Duty
oflie shipby81
UIodsav818
)le.
(I) Fix. . position
' 1n d me
willbeplotted
.
(1) ~ fixes
isavailable
atI Bt every
hour
ocun
, afixwillbeplotted
(~ w...I infonnation
, wtt.Iln open
bansit
.
wiUIin
VIsual
or~ ~ ofland
atI88tevery
fifteen
mllMites
.
(3) When
, afixwillbeplotted
beIri Igswilltakepriority
.
(I) VIsual
.
OQ FillInwiUI~ . r~:~
from8IYcombination
ofu. foIlowlIg aIrces:
(4) Fixes
maybeobtained
Yi8t8
(I)
belriIgs
Welcome Aboard 8
00 R8iarranges
010 R8Iarb88tngs
CCX1tourtng
, Mout hopping
)
(Iv) FdIometer
Oill oflOtI Idings
, bottom
Sat
M Nav
(vi) Omega
.
I8tiaI obI8vatior
(vii) Ce
of. leastII. . LO
Ps.
from~
radarsou. - willconsist
(5) Fix. obtai18d
'
lie ships trackbydeadrlckoringto a sufticient
BIgthof tine UIat8IFId8Iger
(b) Project
waters
ofInternational
, shoals 011 fixedd81gers
jiI~ ~ tolie shipfromland
, violation
I IIly st8Idilgintod8Iger departing
wli benoticed
wellInadvance
oflie shipacb
legaJ
/usigned
water
I.
Items a and b in this document describe the two main parts of the
fix cycle : fixing the ship ' s position and projecting its track . The
procedures of dead reckoning will be explained in detail in chapter
2. The plotted fix is a residue on the chart of a process that gathers
and transforms information about the ship ' s position . A succession
of fixes is both a history of the positions of the ship and a history of
the workings of the process that produced the position information .
The requirement that all fixes be plotted ensures a complete history
of positions and provides certain opportunities to detect and correct
faults in the process that creates the history . The interval between
fixes is set to 60 minutes in open waters and no more than 15
minutes when the ship is in visual or radar contact with land . Near
land , the ship may stand into danger more quickly than when in
the open ocean. Sailors know that it is not the open ocean that
sinks ships , it ' s all that hard stuff around the edges. The increased
frequency of fixes near land is intended to ensure that dangers are
anticipated and avoided . Visual bearings are given priority because
they are the most accurate means of fixing position . The potential
sources of position information are listed roughly in order of their
accuracy and reliability .
The procedure states that fixes may be obtained from any combination
of a number of sources. Let us briefly consider the nature
of these sources and the kinds of information they contribute to
fixing the position of the ship .
So. . cesof Infomlltion for PoIIaon FIxiIg
VISUALBEARINGS
The simplest way of fixing position , and the one that will concern
us most in this book, is by visual bearings. For this one needs a
chart of the region around the ship and a way to measure the
Chapter1 .
- direction (conventionally with respect to north ) of the line of sight
connecting the ship and some landmark on the shore. The direction
of a landmark from the ship is called the landmark ' s bearing .
Imagine the line of sight in space between the ship and a known
landmark . Although we know that one end of the line is at the
landmark and we know the direction of the line , we can ' t just draw
a line on the chart that corresponds to the line of sight between
'
ship and landmark , because we don t know where the other end of
the line is. The other end of the line is where the ship is , and that is
what we are trying to discover .
Suppose we draw a line on the chart starting at the location of the
symbol for the landmark on the chart and extend it past where we
think the ship is - perhaps off the edge of the chart if we are really
unsure . We still don 't know just where the ship is , but we do know
it must have been somewhere on that line when the bearing was
observed. Such a line is called a line of position (LOP) . If we have
another line of position , constructed on the basis of the direction of
the line of sight to another known landmark , then we know that the
ship is also on that line . If the ship was on both of these lines at the
same time , the only place it can have been is where the lines intersect
. The intersection of two lines of position uniquely constrains
the location from which the observations were made. In
practice , a third line of position with respect to another landmark is
constructed . The three lines of position form a triangle , and the size
of that triangle is an indication of the quality of the position fix . It is
sometimes said that the navigator ' s level of anxiety is proportional
to the size of the fix triangle .
The observations of visual bearings of the landmarks (direction
with respect to north ) are made with a special telescopic sighting
device called an alidade . The true -north directional reference is
provided by a gyrocompass repeater that is mounted under the
alidade . A prism in the alidade permits the image of the gyro '
compass s scale to be superimposed on the view of the landmark .
(The view through such a sight is illustrated in figure 1.2.) The gyrocompass
repeaters are located on the wings outside the bridge .
Each one is mounted on a solid metal stand just tall enough to extend
above the chest-high metal railing that bounds the wing .
The most direct access to the port wing from the chart table is
through a door at the back of the pilothouse just behind the captain ' s chair . In cold weather , the captain of the Palau does not permit
traffic through this door . The only other way to get from the
WelcomeAboard 31
UIeIrnag8oftwocomP8
UIealid8Ie superimposes
FIg&n1.2 A view" rough81alld.te. A prtsmInside
reIndicates
ontowt~
IsseenBra. UIetelescopic
scales
sighlTheim. - scaleIsa gyrocompass
's head
.
toUIeship8Id
relative
toUIeship
bearilgs
peater
, UIeout. scaleIsfastened
port wing position to the chart table is to go aft on the wing to the
hatch that leads to the island stairwell and then come forward
'
through the interior passageway past the captain s at-sea cabin and
the charthouse . This makes it difficult to get bearings sometimes ,
because it takes a long time to go around the entire 05 level .
RADAR
Radar also provides information for position fixing . The radar antenna
on the ship ' s mast transmits pulses of radio magnetic energy
as it rotates. When the pulse strikes a solid object , the pulse reflects
off the object . Some of that reflection may return to the radar
antenna that transmitted it . By measuring the time required for the
pulse to travel to the object and return , the radar can compute the
distance to the object . This distance is called the range of the object
. The direction in which the antenna is pointing when the reflected
pulse returns gives the bearing of the object .
Radar ranges are more accurate than radar bearings , so they are
given priority in position plotting . In practice , radar ranges plotted
as circles of position are often combined with visual bearings to
produce position fixes . The surface search radar displays are located
at the front of the pilothouse on the starboard side . Each is
equipped with a heavy black rubber glare shield that improves the
visibility of the display in high ambient light . This glare shield
prevents two or more people from looking at the scope at the same
time . The surface search radar also has non -navigational uses. The
Chapter1 .
officer of the deck may use the radar to observe and track other ship
traffic . For this , a short range is usually desired . The navigation
tasks often require a long range , and there is sometimes conflict
between the two users of the scopes. It is not difficult to change
from one range to another ; however , in order to obtain the required
information after changing ranges, the operator may have to wait
for a full rotation of the radar antenna at the new range setting .
FA THOMETER
The fathometer is a device for measuring the depth of the water
under a ship . It emits a pulse of sound and measures the time it
takes the sound pulse to bounce off the sea bottom and return to the
ship . The time delay is recorded by the movement of a pen across a
piece of paper . The sound pulse is emitted when the pen is at the
top of the paper . The pen moves down the paper at a constant
speed and is brought into contact with the paper when the echo is
detected . The distance the pen navels down the paper before making
its mark is proportional to the time required for the echo to return
, which is in turn proportional to the depth of the water . If the
water is deep , the sound will take longer to return , and the pen will
have nave led farther down the paper before coming into contact
with it . The depth of the water can be read from the scale printed
on the paper . Changing the scale of the fathometer to operate in
deeper or shallower water is accomplished by changing the speed
at which the pen navels . The paper is mounted on a motor drive
that moves the paper to the side a small amount just before each
pulse . This results in a continuous graphical record of the depth of
the water under the ship .
The Palausfathometer
is located in the charthouse , so the
must
leave
the
QMOW
bridge to use it .
NAVSAT
Satellite navigation systemshave now becomecommonplace. They
are easyto use, and they provide high-quality position information.
Their major drawback at the time this research was carried out was
that with the number of navigation satellites then available the
mean interval between fixes was about 90 minutes . After computing
the ship ' s position from the reception of satellite signals , the
satellite navigation system continuously updates the position of the
ship on the basis of inputs from the gyrocompass (for direction ) and
Welcome Aboard &1
the ship ' s log (for speed) . The NavSat system aboard the Palau
(located in the charthouse ) was a box , about the size of a small
suitcase that continuously displayed a digital readout of the latitude
and longitude of the ship .
The fact that NavSat systems must update position with dead
reckoning during the long wait between fixes puts NavSat near the
bottom of the list of sources of information . With the implementation
of the Global Positioning System (GPS), continuous satellite
fixes are now available ; the need for dead-reckoning updates of
position has been eliminated . The military version of GPS is accurate
to within less than a meter in three dimensions . The civilian
versions are intentionally degraded to a consider ably lower accuracy
. GPS will very likely transform the way navigation is done ,
perhaps rendering most of the procedures described in this book
obsolete.
OMEGA
Omega measures the phase difference between the arrival of signals
from multiple stations . Omega was intended to provide accurate
worldwide position -fixing capability . In practice it is unreliable .
Whatever the source of the problems , they are perceived to be so
serious that the following warning appears in the Watch Standing
Manual .
8Ub
Itafi~ byInformation
: Positions
obtained
fromOmega
areh~ 1ysuspect
CAUTION
, 1111888
have~
. Inrecent
ofcosily8Id 8nban8ing~ ndlngs
fromanother
source
years
, a number
are!!!: to be madeon unsubstantiate
to trustingOrnega
. ~ dl8tic decisions
directlyattributable
fix. wiUI OUt
tie explicit
permillionoflie navigm.
Omega
If this system is considered to be so unreliable that it merits this
strongly worded caution in the written procedures , what is it doing
on the ship ? I believe the answer involves an interaction of the organization
of military research and funding with the development
of technology . Omega is a system that not only went into service
before all the bugs could be worked out , it has been overtaken by
other superior technologies before the bugs could be worked out .
Still , it was bought and paid for by the military , and can , on occasion
, provide useful navigation information .
The Palau ' s Omega is located in the charthouse .
CELESTIAL OBSERVATIONS
By measuring the angular distance of a star above the horizon , an
observer can determine his distance from the point on the surface
Chapter1 34
of the earth that the star is directly above. This point forms the
center of a circle of position . In a celestial sight reduction , each
observed celestial body defines a circle of position , and the vessel
from which the observations were made must be located at the intersections
of the circles of position . Celestial observations appear
at the bottom of the list of sources of information . When properly
performed , celestial observations provide fairly good position
information .
There are , however , two major drawbacks to celestial observations
. First , they can be performed only under certain meteor ological circumstances . This makes celestial navigation hard to use
and hard to teach. Several senior quartermasters have told me that
they would like to teach celestial navigation on training missions in
the Southern California operations area, but the combination of air
pollution and light pollution (which makes the night sky bright ,
masking all but the brightest stars and obscuring the line of the
horizon ) produces very few occasions suitable for it . Second , the
procedures are so computationally complex that , even using a specialized calculator , a proficient celestial navigator needs about half
an hour to compute a good celestial position fix . Together these
factors lead to infrequent practice of this skill . I believe that in the
near future the only navigators who will know how to fix position
by star sights will be those sailing on cruising yachts who cannot
afford a thousand dollars for a Sat Nav system .
DRAI
The Dead Reckoning Analyzer Insb" ument ( DRAI) is one of the most
interesting navigational devices . A mechanical analog computer ,
it takes input from the ship ' s speed log and the gyrocompass
and , by way of a system of motors , gears, belts , and cams, continuously
computes changes in latitude and longitude . The output
of the DRAI is expressed in the positions of two dials : one reads
latitude and the other longitude . If these dials are set to the current
latitude and longitude , the changes computed by the motions of
the internal parts of the DRAI will move them so that their readings
follow the latitude and longitude of the ship . The crew of the
Palau claimed that when , properly cared for , the DRAI is quite
accurate and reliable . Older versions of the DRAI , such as the
one aboard the Palau , have been around since the 1940s. Newer
versions that do the same computations electronically are installed
on some of the newer ships .
WelcomeAboard .
PIT SWORD AND DUMMY LOG
The pit sword is a device that is extended through the hull and into
the water to measure a ship ' s actual speed through the water . The
pit sword extends several feet outside the hull and measures speed
'
by measuring the water s distortion of a magnetic field . The speed
signal generated by the pit sword is fed to speed indicators on the
bridge and to all the automated instruments that do dead reckoning
: the NavSat , the DRAI , and the inertial navigation systems (if
present ).
If the ship is operating in shallow water , the pit sword cannot be
extended from the hull . In this case, or if for any other reason the
pit sword cannot be used , the dummy log is used. When a ship is
neither accelerating nor decelerating , its speed can be estimated
fairly accurately from the rate of rotation of the propeller . The
dummy log is a device that senses this rate and provides a signal
that mimics what the pit sword would produce at the corresponding
speed.
Both of these devices are remote from the location of the navigation
team ' s normal activities . A display of speed through the water
is available on the forward port side of the pilothouse , but it is
rarely consulted by the navigation team.
CHRONOMETERS
Tkee traditional spring -driven clocks are kept in a special box in
the Palau ' s charthouse . Readings are recorded daily so that trends
in the behavior of these chronometer ' s can be noted . These records
are maintained while time signals are available on radio so that if
time signals should become unavailable the behavior of the clocks
will be known . If , for example , the log shows that a particular
chronometer loses a second every day , that same rate of change will
be assumed until more reliable time sources are restored .
The diversity of the many sources of navigation information and
'
the many methods for generating constraints on the ship s position
produces an important system property : the fact that positions are
determined by combining information from multiple , sometimes
independent , sources of information permits the navigation team to
check the consistency of the multiple representations with each
other . The probability that several , independently derived , representations
are in agreement with one another and are in error is much
smaller than the probability that anyone representation is in error .
Chapter1 .
AtIII Ch8tTable
The previous section described the sources of information that the
quartermaster of the watch may use while discharging his primary
duty : ensuring the safe navigation of the ship . The information
provided by these sources converges on the chart table , where
positions are plotted and tracks are projected .
The Watch Standing Procedures specify additional constraints
on the QMOW that bring us to other aspects of the navigation
team ' s task setting :
1118
dIarttable8Idnions willbekeptfreeofexhneous
material
atd tines.Only' " chart
(s) in
- ,~
will
, ' " logsoftie watch
, andnecessary
ryJMlblcations
writing
/PIottiIg parlpilernalia
.
beon' " dIarttable
The chart table is mounted against the starboard wall of the pi lothouse , just under the large outward -canted windows . It is large
enough for full -size navigation charts and tools - about 4 by 6 feet.
Under the chart table are a number of locking drawers in which
charts , publications , and plotting tools are stored . A locking cabinet
for binoculars is mounted on the aft edge of the chart table .
Ch8I8
Navigation
The most important piece of technology in the position -fixing task
is the navigation chart . A navigation chart is a specially constructed
model of a real geographical space. The ship is somewhere
in space, and to determine or " fix " the position of the ship is to find
the point on the appropriate chart that corresponds to the ship ' s
position in space. The lines of position derived from visual observations
, radar bearings , radar ranges, celestial observations , and
contour
matches are all graphically constructed on the chart .
depth
Latitude and longitude positions determined by NavSat , Omega, or
Loran are plotted directly on the chart . A fix may be constructed
'
from a combination of these types of information .
Navigation charts are printed on high - quality paper in color .
Natural and " cultural " features are depicted in a complex symbology
(see figure 1.3).
The Palau keeps an inventory of about 5400 charts depicting
ports and coastlines around the world . A comp ~ete set of charts for
current operations are kept on the chart table , and a second complete
set in the table ' s drawers . The rest of the charts are kept in a
chart library in Secondary Conn .
WelcomeAboard 37
~
Iti CI I8)outf8IbI8 boll above8Id below
1.3 A MvigallonctBt m . . SudIa ch8t kICkId8 klfonn
H8b0r.
III ~ . ThIscIwt ~
~ illiii I ~ to S8I ~
Chapter1 .
nil Sec
OI Id8YDutyoflie QMOW
According to the Watch Standing Procedures ,
.
Thesecondary
IsVIekeepi1g
ofVIelogsofVIewatch
dutyofVIeQMOW
Those who have experience in the merchant fleet often say that it
is not necessary to do all the work of piloting in order to get a large
"
"
ship into port . A good ship driver can , after all , eyeball the
movement of the ship and get it down the channel without having
positions plotted on short intervals . To say that it is possible to
guide a ship down a narrow channel without maintaining the piloting
record is not to say that it is easier to do it that way . Even if
nothing goes wrong , the plotted and projected positions of the ship
on the chart are a useful resource to the conning officer , and while
it does require a navigation team to do the work of plotting positions
and computing turn points , the task of the conning officer is
greatly simplified by the advice he receives from the navigation
team. If something does go wrong , the work of the navigation team
becomes indispensable in two ways . First , depending upon what it
is that goes wrong , computing the ship ' s position and track may
become essential to the process of figuring out how to keep the ship
out of trouble (see chapter 8 for an example ) . Second , the records
kept by the navigation team - the chart , the deck log , and the bearing
log - are all legal documents . If the ship is involved in a mishap
, as soon as it is prudent to do so, all these documents are
removed from the chart table and locked in the Executive Officer ' s
safe. This precaution is taken to ensure that they will not be tampered
with before they are turned over to a board of inquiry investigating
the incident . These records may be needed to protect
the navigation team , the captain , the ship , and ultimately the Navy
from accusations of negligence or incompetence . The Palau ' s Assistant
Navigator offered the following justification :
You can go into San Diego by eye. But legally , you can 't. If you
haven 't matched all the things and something happens , not neces'
sarily to you , it don t have to. One of those buoys can float loose in
the god damn bay and rub up along side you . Boy , you better have
everything covered here , because they are going to tzy to hang the
captain . They will tzy to hang him . Unless he can prove with data
that everything he did was right . Now . . . the merchant ship
wouldn 't. They would just say, " We were in the middle of the
channel . The damn thing hit us, and if there is an expense, fine ,
"
charge the company .
Welcome Aboard .
Other records are kept as well . There is a separate log for the gyro
compasses (with entries made twice daily ), and another for the
magnetic compasses. (The DRAI reading is also recorded in the
magnetic compass log at the beginning of each watch .) There is yet
another log for the shipschronometers . A fathometer log is kept
with the fathometer during maneuvers in restricted waters . A log of
the ship ' s position is updated daily .
11IeT. . . , DutyofIII QMOW
"
The tertiary duty of the quartermaster of the watch is to give all
"
possible aid to the Officer of the Deck in the conduct of his watch .
The Officer of the Deck (OOD ) is also normally the conning officer ,
although he may delegate this duty to a Junior Officer of the Deck.
The importance of the relationship between the QMOW and the
OOD is reflected in the following excerpt from the Watch Standing
Procedures :
~
to takeDRAI81dFau
willnotleavelie Bridge
TheQMOW
rBlngs. 81dcollect
except
lie OOD
fix. asr~:~ -j . If heleaves
thebridge
NavSat
81d~
, 81dwillabsent
, hewi" Inform
isassigned
UlOuse
oftineasPOSIible. (If a Char
Quarwmaster
hinse
If forasshorta period
,
.
reliMd
to leave
thebridge
unless
. . . . no. . - ityforlie QMOW
)
pr~
The control of the ship is a partially closed information loop . The
'
conning officer senses the ship s situation in the world by looking
out the window of the bridge . The members of the navigation team
also sense the world by looking at it ; in addition , however , they
gather information from other sources, and from that other information
they synthesize a more comprehensive and accurate representation
of the situation of the ship . The navigation team uses its
representation to generate advice to the conning officer , who by
acting (or not acting ) on that advice affects the actual situation of
the ship in the world which is sensed and interpreted .
The navigation team relies on the conning officer to the extent
that if the conning officer turns the ship or changes its speed in
other than the recommended places then the workload of the navigation
team is increased . When the quartermasters project the
position of the ship into the future , the projections sometimes involve
changes in course and or speed. When this is the case, the
projected track is carefully planned , precomputed , and plotted . If
the ship remains on the precomputed track , many parts of the required
computation will have been performed in advance. When
the ship deviates from planned track , new computations may be
Chapter1 40
required to establish when and where various maneuvers are appropriate
. For example , on one of the Palau ' s departures from port
an inexperienced conning officer made several turns before the
recommended point . This happened because the deck of the ship is
so big and so high off the water that from the point of view of the
navigation bridge the surface of the water for several hundred yards
in front of the ship is hidden from view . When a channel is narrow
and some of the turns are tight , channel buoys disappear beneath
the deck before the turn is commenced . For an inexperienced conning
officer , the temptation to turn before the buoy disappears
under the bow is great . Once a buoy disappears beneath the deck , it
is difficult to estimate whether or not the ship will hit it . To keep
the ship on track , a conning officer must be disciplined and must
trust the navigation team.
The conning officer has other obligations and cannot always do
what is easiest for the navigation team. On one occasion the Palau ' s
engineering department detected a rumbling noise in the propeller
shaft . In order to diagnose the problem , the engineers requested 50
right rudder , then 50 left rudder , then 100 right rudder followed by
100 left rudder . The ship was slaloming along through 800 turns .
This happened while the ship was out of visual and radar range of
land , so its position had to be maintained by dead reckoning , a very
difficult task under these conditions .
THE COMBATINFORMAnON CENTER
The navigation team also coordinatesits activities with the Combat
Information Center (CIC...
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