WHAT'S OUR SPEED? THE EVOLUTION OF SHIP-LOGS

Grenville D. Zerfass

Peer Reviewed

Abstract:	Irrespective of the mode of transportation, there is usually the desire, if not the urgent need, to know "How fast and how far?" The questions that are probably most frequently directed to the captain of a ship are: "Where are we?" "When will we arrive?" and "What’s our speed ?" For the ordinary modes of travel on land the determination of speed or of distance traversed is a fairly simple matter; usually a wheel rolling over the road or along a track supplies the means for obtaining the answer. An automobile without a speedometer is an oddity. Even a pedestrian can carry a pedometer and a stop-watch, if he is interested in recording his progress in terms of speed and distance. But when attempts were made to devise instruments for use at sea, the problems encountered proved to be quite formidable.
Published in:	NAVIGATION: Journal of the Institute of Navigation, Volume 3, Number 7
Pages:	232 - 239
Cite this article:	Zerfass, Grenville D., "WHAT'S OUR SPEED? THE EVOLUTION OF SHIP-LOGS", NAVIGATION: Journal of The Institute of Navigation, Vol. 3, No. 7, 1953, pp. 232-239.
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