A Brief History of Sailing Directions

Abstract

Sailing Directions nowadays implies ‘Pilots’, with which all mariners are familiar. However, the term in a broader sense embraces a wide range of printed and descriptive material of help to the seaman. In this paper, which was presented at a meeting of the Solent Branch of the Institute in December 1979, Dr Cotter traces the origins of the publications – pilot books, light lists, tide tables, and indeed charts – which are now available to the navigator. The paper has been abridged. Men sailed the seas and made extended voyages, without benefit of instruments now considered vitally necessary, thousands of years before the invention of chart and compass, the pre-eminent instruments of navigation. To the question: ‘How did an ancient sea-trader shape his course in the confident expectation of reaching his destination safely?’ there is no complete answer. But we can be fairly certain that early seafarers learnt the techniques of their craft through observation and experience supplemented by verbal instruction and advice from their more-experienced contemporaries.

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