Of all the working pilot schooners built for service in the North Sea, perhaps the most famous is Albatros (the Dutch spelling has only one s). The American writer and aviator Ernest K. Gann bought Albatros in 1952. Built in Amsterdam in 1920 of riveted steel, the 117-foot LOA Albatros worked as a pilot schooner in the North Sea. Albatros was bought by the German government in 1937 and used by the Nazis during WWII as a U-boat relay station.
After the war, Royal Rotterdam Lloyd, a Dutch shipping line, bought Albatros for a cadet training ship for future officers of the Dutch Merchant Marine. She had been lying unused when Gann bought her and sailed her back to San Francisco for a refit, taking an astounding 118 days to complete the passage via the Panama Canal.
Gann, who lived from 1910 to 1991, was an American icon — an aviator, novelist, screenwriter, sailor and conservationist. His sailing adventures inspired a whole generation of long-distance cruisers. Gann was not only an accomplished commercial pilot but also one who wrote some of the best novels concerning flying, including The High and the Mighty and Island in the Sky, both made into movies starring John Wayne. His memoir of early commercial aviation, Fate is the Hunter, is considered by airline historians to be a classic. He also loved sailing. Albatros was his 16th boat.
After arriving in San Francisco, and with the help of some old experienced square-rigged sailors who were still around, Gann had the schooner converted into a brigantine with four yards on the foremast. He taught himself to sail a square rig and sailed the South Pacific for the next three years with family and friends. Gann wrote a book that chronicled his adventures, Song of the Sirens. He was also writing and sailing and selling film scripts to Hollywood. Albatros was even used in a film he wrote, Twilight of the Gods.
For this nav problem we will be doing a Jupiter observation. There is a v correction for GHA and a d correction for declination that add additional steps to the sight reduction.
On October 1 (we will use the 2023 Nautical Almanac) at a dead reckoning position of N 28° 20’ by W 55° 15’, Captain Gann observes Jupiter.
His height of eye is 20 feet and his observation time is 10 hours 5 minutes GMT. The Hs of his observation is 30° 08’
A. Find the Ho.
B. Find the Local Hour Angle.
C. Using Volume 2 of HO 249, find the intercept.
D. Plot the LOP and find an Estimated Position. n