ABSTRACT
One hundred years ago, the instrumentation needed to navigate an ocean-going vessel could be carried in a mariner’s bag. The instruments
were few and the amount of data accessible to the bridge crew was very limited. Knowledge was mostly carried in the head as experience and rules of thumb. Navigational aids were few; the seafarer was everything. The fate of the Oceanic serves as an example: shortly aer being commissioned into the Royal Navy in 1914, she ran aground and sank on a reef west of Shetland, following an inaccurate position x during the night.
