Enlisted in the US Navy in 1965. Commissioned in 1972 and on my first ship as a JO. Standing bridge watches as JOOW, then JOOD and finally the CO approves you as OOD. Day watches at first, lots of oversight, but finally the responsibility of night watches.
Read the Standing Orders, and the Night Orders. Know when to call the CO, particularly about vessels with a CPA that will require us to maneuver. Getting ready to call, rehearse in your head the entire script, “Captain, this the xxxx the OOD, we have a …”. So, use the growler on the sound powered phone, the CO answers sleepily and I go through the entire script, ending with my recommendation of our turn 20 degrees to starboard at…
Now, waiting for the CO to approve, or modify, my recommendation, all I hear is his light snoring on the line. Growler again, script again, contact is now closer…
We were on a regular run along the Australian coast from NSWto Northern Old and Arnhem Land, NT with a side trip to Port Moresby, PNG with min. 10% of the cargo to stay legal.
Returning from Port Moresby, mostly in ballast, we would try to get into the sheltered passage inside Great Barrier Reef as far north as possible. That was by entering through Cook’s Passage, near Cooktown, Qld.
The problem was that this passage was not marked with buoys, or leading lights, like Fitzroy Passage further south.
With no working radar the only way to make sure we entered the right passage was to arrive off the reef before dawn, take star fixes and enter the reef when the sun was low in the East.
The routine was; I would call the Master and 2nd Off. before dawn. The Master would shoot the stars, I would get the reading and count the seconds while walking to the chart room to read the chronometer and pass the numbers to the 2nd Off, who would do the calculations and mark the line on the chart.
After 3 star fixes we would start heading for the reef while getting at least one or two more fixes before we could see the breakers.
Once inside the reef it was a matter of looking at the signs of shallows, until we could get a fix on landmarks and continue along the inside passage in comfort.
It was a technique we used in subs taking stars in the middle of the night. The navigator took the sight on a totally blacked out surround after 1/2 an hour of night vision. The time was recorded in the control room. The OOW read the altitude on the sextant and passed that to the control room with the object observed and set the sextant up to the next star on the list. The navigator removed his mask and observed the next one.
I used the technique once outside of the navy on a tanker with the Old Man reading the sextant when we had no obs and overcast near reefs.
