For a sight book we used a legal sized ruled exercise book. I found the one I used as a 2/M on tankers. All sights were calculated using Haversines and 7 figure log tables. In a year I took close to taking observations on 300 days. Working up speed for an examination where calculators were not allowed for C/M.
We were taught and examined on the sight reduction by half log Haversines but never used that afterwards. We used the Marc St Hillaire intercept method with properly printed sight books.
As navigator of a frigate in late seventies I got very good at rapid sight reductions with most calculation before the sights and about five minutes afterwards to plot a position. A good nav yeoman was an essential part of the team.
A couple of years later as navigator of a survey ship, I got my first SatNav, about the same size as a domestic washing machine with tractor drive printer as the readout.
That’s how I learned, my WWII vintage academy instructor (“HAP”) didn’t allow calculators. But the Coast Guard allowed them on the license exam for 3rd Mate, so I never used them after that.
When I went to work for NOAA I started studying for my third’s license.
Another crew member, also studying for a 3rd’s, asked me for help with logarithms, I told him logs were not needed, just use a calculator. I think he didn’t believe me because he never asked for help again. Last I heard he went ashore and was selling used cars.
A second crew member also asked me about logarithms, told him the same thing but he asked me to explain. I did, he later got his third’s and went to work as mate for Crowley.
My first USCG celestial exam was in 1982. I was entirely self-taught.
Back then, only Rules of the road was multiple choice. Everything else was an essay exam and you had to show your work. The exam room proctor was a USCG navigator. I had to use the tables. I don’t remember if calculators were allowed, or what the capability of a an affordable calculator was in 1982.
Really? My first exam was in Dec., 1979 and it was all multiple choice. Affordable calculators then (less than $50) had trig functions.
My first USCG exam was in January 1972.
My first celestial exam was for Master Freight & Towing 500 tons, Oceans. I sat for it in Boston in June 1982. Rules of the Road was the only thing multiple choice.
Also, it was mostly an essay exam when I sat for First Class Pilot not long thereafter.
The examination for mate and for master was composed of essay type examinations of papers lasting 3 hours over a week except for chart work (2.5 hours for mate) and Deviscope for master . At the end was orals. Here the examiner over the course of up to 2 1/2 hours could refer back to previous exams including your second mate’s exam and quiz you on anything you appeared weak on. It was during orals that you were examined on the rules of the road.
When I sat for C/M fresh off tankers I was orally examined on preparing a reefer ship to receive frozen meat after general cargo. It was not a ship I ever wanted to be on, it went aground and had a fire. Students came out of orals looking like they had gone six rounds with Mike Tyson.