School of Navigation
Original title: Escola de Pilotagem
A navigation school attached to the Funchal harbour-master's office, created by decree of 14 November 1917, which trained merchant navy officers until it was abolished.
Attached to the Harbour Master’s Office (Capitania do Porto) of this city there is a School of Navigation (Escola de Pilotagem), created by decree of 14 November 1917, when the commander Arantes Pedroso was Minister of the Navy. The school owes its creation to the persistent and diligent efforts of the harbour master of Funchal, Commander Artur de Sales Henriques, who was entrusted with setting it up and has been its only teacher. Like other schools of this kind, its course lasts two years. The first year comprises arithmetic, elementary algebra, plane and solid geometry, plane trigonometry, general geography, compasses and dead reckoning; the second comprises spherical trigonometry, general astronomy, nautical calculations, astronomical navigation, handling under sail and steam, signals and meteorology.
The school’s course qualifies students as merchant navy officers, conferring a pilot’s certificate once the candidates have completed a certain period at sea as apprentices.
In the academic year 1917–1918, 17 students enrolled, of whom 4 passed into the second year. In 1919, 3 students completed the course, the first at this school to qualify for a pilot’s certificate. The school was abolished.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 01
- Funchal
City whose port authority housed the navigation school.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
People
People mentioned · 02-
Frigate captain and Minister of the Navy when the Funchal navigation school was created in 1917.
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Harbour master of Funchal whose efforts led to the navigation school's creation, which he set up and where he was the only teacher.