Martin Woodward on Navigation

The job was nothing really, it was a normal … in those days a lot of red flares were supposedly spotted, I mean people don’t use red flares much nowadays, it’s all done by radio and cell phone and modern techniques, but this was just a sighting of red flares just out off here between here and the Mainland.

And I remember Peter Smith saying to me, he said, “You’re just off to be a Navigator” he said, “you can go and navigate our position” and of course in those days you had an open wheel house or semi-enclosed wheel house and everybody smoking their Capstan Full Strength, no names mentioned, clouds of smoke and a compass and a little chart room down in the middle of the boat and I remember going down there and I couldn’t find anything and according to my reckoning we were about two miles inland, somewhere on the Mainland in a grave yard I think.

I don’t think it was quite that bad, but it was one of those jobs that was just a false sighting with good intent. It turned out to be nothing in the end, but I remember it because it was my first one.