Slawek Grzechnik wrote "During WWII convoy navigators, whatever their
civilian backgrounds, became superb sextant users." Well, some of them
did and it was always an astonishment to me that anyone could
successfully command, say, a Liberty ship with so little practical
experience. American ships of necessity had relaxed requirements
regarding sea time for navigators and many Liberty ships in convoy
simply repeated the Commodore's signal flags for the noon position. Who
could blame them? It takes time to become a competent astro-navigator
(quicker with help from able companions). But for a reason I did not
understand, ancient pre-war US freighters in convoy always seemed to be
manned by highly experienced crews. Why were these crews not spread
about in the Liberties? These old US ships generally had their own view
about the convoy's position, as did the British ships, also manned
largely by time-served men.
--
Frank Evans
