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.
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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.
I had an HP that had a special celestial program back in 1980. It worked great on land, at sea it would get too hot and quit working.
I had a HP45 I think it was. The programmes were my own derived from the formula. Now days the British Nautical almanac includes methods for calculating celestial methods in an appendix .
I had a TI calculator with a navigation chip with clestial and sailings programs. It was a graduation award from Mobil in 1980. I hardly used the calculator, the more valuable award was the job that came with it.
I used a HP 11c for all my license exams. I also took a cheap Casio with me in case the examiners took HP away but they never did. Instead they would just have me take out the batteries which did clear all the memory.
I used Bowditch explanation of the tables and entered the formula into the HP in the exam room then i’d run the example problem to make sure there were no errors.
I probably would have been sunk if I had to use the non-RPN Casio.
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I miss my HP 34C. My fingers still vividly recall tactile memories of the satisfyingly precise tilting key mechanism!
Once accustomed, RPN was effiecient, and it was cool, because it was different…
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The Mercator sailing program I used made full use of the registers. Pushing a couple of function buttons and out came the answers. Another program calculated the intermediate points on a great circle sailing. Very useful for transpacific voyages. My old faithful 11C is still working but only in an economics study group I belong to.
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Do You or other users who so fondly and with great nostalgia talk about this beauty remember the entry method in HP 34 C
As I said:
Reverse Polish Notation…
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I started my programming adventures with this baby:
and simplified BASIC .Still have it with an interface allowing it to hook to data recorder what expanded it’s possibilities allowing for more complex programs.
The HC 34C later version with magentic cards & printer I saw in 1983-1987.
Was used by chief mates for stability calculation . Programs were custom made for this con-ro vsls. Also saw some of them thrown against the wall and broken into pieces by furious chief mates 
.
The problem was , the program was written by IT/matemathicians, with what looked like little consultation with the practicioners/user. Declared as not user friendly - hence the dramatic end of some of them.
But as 3rd/2nd mate I was not much interested in them having already purchased my lovely Spectrum ZX- the EU equivalent of Commodore & Atari.
Was confronted though by RPN in 1992 as chief mate on Singaporean flag vessel. They used another HP version - more advanced with inbuilt printer for stability calculations.
Grabbed the manual to learn what lingo it used with intention to learn it and gasped: WTF??? Reverse Polish Notation ??? what the hell is this .Never heard of it. But slowly , painstakingly tamed the beast and found some beauty in it . Basis some experience in programming from Casio FX 702 P and ZX Spectrum made the draft survey routine that worked lovely. Was very proud of this achievement. 
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That’s better than the engineers at HP did. I had an HP 41 and when I went back to sea bought the navigation module. For some reason the software for great circle couldn’t handle crossing 180 longitude.
The globetrottter however never let me down.
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