Throughout the history of warfare at sea, navigation has been an important basic determinant of victory. Occasionally, new members of the fraternity of the sea will look upon navigation as a chore to be tolerated only as long as it takes to find someone else to assume the responsibility. In my experience, such individuals never make good naval officers. Commander Hobbs has succeeded in bringing together the information and practical skills required for that individual who would take the first step down the road toward becoming a competent marine navigator. At the outset of this book, the author stresses the necessity for safe navigation, but there is another basic tenet of sea warfare that this book serves. The best weapons system man has ever devised cannot function effectively unless it knows where it is in relation to the real world, where it is in relation to the enemy, and where the enemy is in relation to the real world. Not all defeats can be attributed to this lack of information, but no victories have been won by those who did not know where they were.