Achievement

Harold Gafty's "Raft Book" is a Remarkable Achievement

1981. —Wiley Post, pilot, and Harold Gatty, navigator, make the first flight around the earth. 1937.—-Harold Gatty, as South Pacific manager of Pan American Airways, establishes the first regular air-mail service across the South Pacific— between San Francisco and Auck land. 1944.—Harold Gatty produces “The Raft Book,” something unique both in literature and navigation. rOM the moment he first came into the Pacific, Mr. Gatty was fascinated by the ancient stories of the Poly nesian navigators—those men who, know ing nothing of sextants and charts and compasses, found their way repeatedly, and accurately, across the vast, empty stretches of the Pacific.

How did they do it? There are many strange stories of their methods and appliances, but none quite authentic.

Gatty, himself a famous navigator, set himself to a study of this unusual subject.

His researches extended over years. In the middle ’thirties, -he told this writer something of what he was doing, and it was evident then that he was digging in a rich field. But by the time his work had reached a point where he could tell the world of his the world had turned topsy-turvy. Every day, sea men and airmen, victims of the war, were finding themselves adrift, without navi gating instruments or knowledge, on those great wastes of the Pacific waters.

Here was an opportunity. The ingenious, rule-of-thumb methods by which the ancient Polynesian navigators read the stars and the ways of nature could not only be made the subject of a fascinating book; they might also be adapted to mod ern. wartime use, and serve to guide our castaway Servicemen to safety.

And so Harold Gatty, assisted by an understanding publisher and a clever book binder, has produced “The Raft Book.” It is not a big book; and it fits into a case, which in turn fits snugly into the pocket. The sailor or the airman who takes this with him, and finds himself adrift without a navigator, not only has something most excellent to read, but has the means of navigating himself across any part of the Pacific or the Atlantic Ocean.

Within the case is, first, the book itself, with its fascinating accounts of how the Polynesians guided themselves across the oceans; of what can be learned from birds and winds, and clouds and winged insects; ol what is told by ocean currents, the temperature and colour of the water, and the character and direction of the waves and there are most remarkable data about the stars and the moon as means of navigation.

Next there is Gatty’s “Combined World and Stan- Chart for Emergency Naviga fi°“- . , ls a very large, and a most ingenious thing. On one side, is a chart of the world s oceans, from 50 South to 70 North; on the other side is a very com .c^ of t* l6 heavens, showing all the stars as seen by man in his journey around the sun. An exceedingly ingenious supplies mea ns by which the uninitiated may recognise the stars.

Next, there is another large sheet with ™ ass es °/ tables , arran ged so simply that the amateur navigator, hqving recognised st ll s . and knowing the date and hav mg obtained true Greenwich time, can g»t his approximate position. Finallv S a S ad^u . ster - mada to fit onto the edge of the mam sheet, to be moved

alone: to the right date; whereupon the reading of the tables becomes very easy.

There is only one catch —the castaway must have a timeniece from which he can exactly calculate Greenwich time.

With that, the rest is simple Without it, he still can make very good use of “The Raft Book”; and, with the aid of the old Polynesian methods, so effectively ex plained by Mr. Gatty, he could get him self out of danger.

Mr. Gatty has completed a monumental work (one has to see the compilation to realise the labour that has been put into it by this practical navigator); and thus, while still a young man, has carried out his third great achievement. Where next?

Every man who takes the risk of being cast away at sea should carry the “Raft Book”—it might make the difference between life and death. It does not seem to be on sale in Australia. The publish ers are George Grady Press, 445 West Pqrtyfirst Street. New York; and the orice, 3 dollars 25 cents, is the cheapest

insurance we have ever seen.-

Rwr.