Every year on January 25, our country celebrates a professional holiday - the Day of the Navigator of the Russian Navy. This is a professional holiday for all Russian military personnel, whose activities are directly related to laying the course of ships, vessels and aviation of the Russian Navy, as well as monitoring the proper operation of navigation devices and calculating movements. Sometimes this holiday is also called the Day of the Navigator.
An interesting fact is that even relatively recently, the Day of the Navigator of the Navy was celebrated in our country twice a year. The dates of the spring (March 20-21) and autumn (September 22-23) equinoxes were chosen for the celebration. It was on these days that it was easy to determine the cardinal points without the use of special tools and devices - the sun rose strictly in the east, and set, accordingly, in the west. This practice existed until 1997. Admiral of the Fleet Felix Nikolayevich Gromov, who held the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy at that time, made changes to the date of celebration; he signed the corresponding order "On the introduction of annual holidays and professional days in the specialty" on July 15, 1996. In accordance with the order, the Day of the Navigator of the Russian Navy was to be celebrated on January 25th.
It should be noted that the date of the celebration was not chosen by chance. It was on this day, January 25, 1701, that Peter I issued a decree, in which, in particular, it was noted: "To be mathematical and navigational, that is, cunningly nautical arts of learning." To implement the will of the tsar, the "School of Mathematical and Navigational Sciences" was formed in the country, a new educational institution was located in Moscow, in the Sukharev Tower. Today this day is rightly considered officially the date of the founding of the navigational service of the Russian fleet.
The very word navigator came to us from Holland (stuurman, from stuur - "steering wheel" and man - "man"). Literally it could be translated as the person behind the wheel. This definition quite accurately reflects the meaning of this profession. At the same time, a few centuries ago, and today, the navigator has a huge responsibility, since at sea the ship can always face unforeseen circumstances. Of course, modern equipment has greatly simplified the work of navigators, but they are still required to be able to do their job without modern electronic equipment, which can fail for various reasons.
Peter I, who laid the foundations of the Russian fleet, was well aware of the importance of navigational service. At the same time, the duties of the navigator and sub-navigator of the ship were documented in 1720, they were contained in the first Naval charter for Russia. On the ship, depending on its armament (number of guns), it was necessary to have 1-2 navigators, who had 1-2 navigators under their command. For example, on battleships with 50-90 guns, according to the state, it was supposed to have two navigators and two sub-navigators, in the presence of 32 guns - 1 navigator and 2 sub-navigators, 14-16 guns - 1 navigator and 1 sub-navigator. At the same time, at that time, the position of navigator in the fleet was in seniority between the skipper and the boatswain. On matters of navigation, the navigator reported directly to the commander of the ship.
Navigators were required to receive the necessary supplies for the navigational unit (compasses, magnets for magnetizing compass arrows, lots, hourglass, etc.). In those years, a battleship was supposed to have 8 magnetic compasses at once and up to 10 hourglasses of different duration: from half a minute to half an hour, inclusive. At the end of the campaign, the navigators reported to the captain about the expenditure of supplies, after which they handed over the rest to the warehouses (stores). At the same time, navigators had to have their own atlases of nautical navigational charts, navigational aids and instruments (quadrants, hailstones, nocturals, compasses, etc.). Also navigators were obliged to keep compasses in order, periodically check them, follow the hourglass.
Immediately before the sea voyage, the navigator was charged with inspecting the steering wheel. At sea, navigators were responsible for analytical calculations, recording in their journal the course, the drift of the ship, the distance traveled by the ship, the declination of the compass, the current of the sea, the wind and a lot of other information. When sailing near the coast, navigators were obliged to study it, mapping all unfamiliar shoals, rocks and large stones. When the ship was anchored, they were engaged in controlling the time of its throwing, depending on the drift, and after anchoring, they followed the movements of the ship.
At one time, many well-known Russian naval commanders began their military careers precisely from the position of navigator of a ship. Among them were admirals who laid the foundation for the modern fleet of our country, such as S. Gorshkov, V. Mikhailin, A. Mikhailovsky and many others. In the history of great geographical discoveries, the names of navigators were on a par with the names of the commanders of ships. For example, in the Primorsky Territory alone, 64 capes, 12 islands, 9 bays and 3 peninsulas were named after navigators of the Russian fleet, thus, their names were immortalized for history.
More than three hundred years have passed since the appearance of the fleet in Russia, since then shipbuilding, science and maritime affairs have come a long way, but the work of the navigator is still in demand and is respected in the fleet. According to the chief navigator of the Russian Navy, Rear Admiral Eduard Luik, the navigator specialty, which appeared in our country simultaneously with the appearance of the first warships, is highly demanded these days, this specialty can be called one of the main naval specialties in the Russian Navy. The admiral emphasizes that even in our time it is impossible to imagine either the movement of the ship or its actions to use the standard weapons systems on board without a navigator. In conditions when Russian warships and submarines are again solving important tasks of the naval presence in the World Ocean, the role and responsibility that rests on the shoulders of naval navigators is only increasing.
According to data for 2017, the navigational service of the Russian Navy numbered about 3,000 specialists, about 1,000 of them are officers. It is also more than 200 people of the teaching staff of various Russian naval educational institutions. About 50 of them have an academic degree, and more than 30 teachers have an academic title. Today, the navigational service of the Russian Navy includes more than 10 educational units, the main of which are the departments of the navigational service of the Navy at the Naval Academy, the departments of navigation at the higher naval educational institutions located in St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Kaliningrad and Vladivostok, as well as in the training centers of the Russian Navy. At the disposal of the navigator service of the Russian fleet today are both special simulators for maritime training of future navigators, as well as modern training laboratories. Also, several training ships and about 10 training boats are actively used for naval training of navigators.
At the same time, the prestige and demand for the navigator's profession is still great. This is confirmed by a fairly high competition for admission to study. So in 2016, the competition for the Russian naval educational institutions for the navigator's specialty was 3.5 people per place. The Russian navy is interested in a high-quality selection of candidates for admission to the first year in the navigational specialty. The quality of the selection and training of future navigators directly affects the successful implementation of the assigned tasks by warships and support vessels of the Russian Navy, without various incidents and navigational accidents, which at sea can have the most sad consequences for both the ship and its crew.
“The training of navigators for the Russian Navy today also takes into account the active process of updating the fleet within the framework of the State Shipbuilding Program, receiving new surface and submarine ships of the new generation into the fleet, equipping the Navy with new weapons, modern navigation systems and complexes. More and more often, the ships of the Russian fleet are faced with important tasks that are directly related to actions as part of heterogeneous, interspecific and homogeneous groupings. All this requires from the specialists of navigational services of all Russian fleets and the Caspian flotilla an even higher level of professional and practical training,”notes Rear Admiral Eduard Luik. According to him, navigation support for the fulfillment of assigned tasks at sea is becoming even more important today, since Russian ships are increasingly appearing in various regions of the World Ocean, often still poorly studied.
On January 25, the Military Review team congratulates all navigators of the Russian Navy and veterans of the navigational service on their professional holiday. Day of the Navigator of the Russian Navy is a holiday of all people who, according to their duty, performed or continue to perform very important tasks to ensure the navigational safety of navigation of surface ships and submarines, as well as various support vessels of the Russian fleet in various regions of our planet - from the hot tropics to icy arctic latitudes.
