Nautical Terms .

Maritime Nautical terms which are essential to know by every one.

1. Nautical Terms

2. Canvas Heading (0-360) Bearing (+180 –180) Own ship Target Course Range Angle is always measured clockwise

3. Heading/Course/Track Heading is the angle of the vessel, aircraft or vehicle to an object (e.g. true north) (the heading of the ship shown in the image below is 058°). It is customary to use Heading for own ship and course for target ship. a vehicle's course is the angle that the intended path of the vehicle makes with a fixed reference object (typically true north ). Typically course is measured in degrees from 0° clockwise to 360° in compass convention (0° being north, 90° being east) The track or course over ground, is the actual path followed by the vessel (actual path may be different from intended path due to wind and waves effects) In marine navigation , a bearing is the direction one object is from another object, usually, the direction of an object from one's own vessel

4. Longitude Longitude is an angular measurement, usually expressed in degrees. Points with the same longitude lie in lines running from the North Pole to the South Pole . By convention, one of these, the Prime Meridian, which passes through the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, England, establishes the position of zero degrees longitude. The longitude of other places is measured as an angle east or west from the Prime Meridian, ranging from 0° at the Prime Meridian to +180° eastward and −180° westward

5. Latitude Lines of constant latitude run east–west as circles parallel to the equator. Latitude is an angle which ranges from 0° at the Equator to 90° (North or South) at the poles. The definition of geodetic latitude (φ) and longitude (λ) on an ellipsoid

6. Port and Starboard Port and starboard are nautical terms which refer to the left and right sides, respectively, of a ship or as perceived by a person on board facing the bow (front) Memory Tips: Port and left both contain four letters. Starboard contains two letter " R"s , compared to only one in port; therefore, starboard refers to the right side.

7. Nautical Mile and Knots Nautical mile : a unit of length equals to 1.852 km Knot : A unit of speed: 1 nautical mile (1.8520 km) per hour.

8. Gyrocompass A gyrocompass is a type of non-magnetic compass which is based on a fast-spinning disc to automatically find geographical direction (True North). Log An instrument used to measure ship speed

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