Software updates
A system of correction and new information long predates digital computers.
As we’ve mentioned, our tutor is in the habit of posting a map or chart on the wall of his cubicle. Originally motivated by a bright student with limited geographical knowledge, this practice has continued long after her graduation. Like other breadcrumbs, the hope is that students will absorb some of the information without their attention being explicitly drawn to it, or a long lesson devoted to the area in question. Our tutor is, of course, ready to provide comments or answers if any interest is shown.
The current posting is an ex-Navy chart of the sea area east of the Strait of Gibraltar. It goes by the name of the Sea of Alboran, a name one might expect on a map in a fantasy novel but in this case quite real and historical. One feature that maybe only our tutor notices is the chart corrections. The original printed chart has been modified by hand over the years of its use. Most of these are changes in the light characteristics of lighthouses or buoys (from flashing every 10 seconds to every 15, maybe); there is one new traffic separation scheme (so that ships passing Cabo del Gato going west don’t run into those heading east); a few new symbols for “wreck, not showing at mean low water.” Each of these modifications comes from a specific Notice to Mariners, a message sent out to holders of these charts giving important, and maybe vital, updates to the information contained thereon. Sometimes there were new symbols or figures to cut out and paste in the proper places, “showing” (as one unkind officer remarked of a senior) “that all those years with scissors and paste in first grade were not wasted.”
It was a highly-developed software update system in the age of analog navigation. In those days, of course, a flaw in the software would not shut the entire ship down, like a ransomware attack today, or allow the disclosure of the crew’s personal information across the Dark Web. But mis-identifying a lighthouse or missing a shifting shoal could indeed wreck the ship, and would at least lead to confusion and uncertainty at a possibly inconvenient time. There were regular inspections, and in case of accident investigators would certainly want to know if the charts were up to date, and through which Notice.
Our navigator did one voyage on a merchant ship with an electronic chart system backed up by paper. Electronic charts were expensive and having two such systems on a ship (some alternate to the primary was required) was thought extravagant. That led to a certain amount of duplicate work, and updating the electronic system was an entirely different operation from updating the paper charts. He says he didn’t really mind; but navigators are cautious and cynical by nature. He did notice that most of the modifications of buoys and lighthouses did away with horns and bells, and other supplements to navigation from before GPS. Nowadays double electronic systems are no doubt the rule, and the old Notice to Mariners system is being relegated to a standby, perhaps to disappear altogether. But we can’t avoid the thought that it worked better than current updating systems on our computers.
