Figure 8-1.—Locating a ship by use of the formation plot.
LOOKOUT DUTIES
A good lookout has to be plenty sharp on a lot of
things. Not only must lookouts be able to sight and
identify objects, but they must be able to report them
correctly, using relative bearings, distances, target
angles, and in the case of aircraft, position angles.
Report everything you observe; a normal tendency is
to hesitate until you are certain an actual contact has
been sighted. Do not hesitate. Many important
sightings have been made on hunches.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES: Explain the
importance of maintaining a good visual
lookout. Define night vision and dark
adaptation.
On every ship, the lookout has an extremely
important job. A Signalman's duties also require
Navy radar is the best that can be built; but there
keeping a sharp lookout. As a matter of pride, the
are many things that even radar cannot always detect,
Signalman should be the first to sight and identify
such as small buoys, planes low on the water, small
objects, even on ships with an assigned lookout
life rafts and flares, and many other kinds of danger to
team.
navigation. There have been a number of occasions
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