The contents of Notices to Mariners (NMs )

NM

We studied about the concept of Marine Navigation Charts, and the correction of
charts used on ships in our previous articles. The weekly Notices to Mariners
contain, amongst other information, individual notices (not to be confused with the
NM itself). A NM is broken up into the following sections:

Section I Explanatory Notes and list of Publications

Section II Geographical Index

Index of Affected Charts: matches chart numbers affected with notice

Corrections to Charts: individual notices to be used in chart correction.

Temporary and Preliminary notices in force at time of publication of NM

Section III Reprints of Navigational Warnings (in force)

Section IV Amendments to Admiralty Sailing Directions (not for charts)

Section V Amendments to Admiralty List of Lights (not for charts)

Section VI Amendments to Admiralty list of Radio Signals (not for charts)

Sections IV through VI are used for correcting other Admiralty publications in use on
board and not charts. Some of these publications are the List of Lights and fog
signals, Sailing Directions, Admiralty list of Radio Signals etc. There are hundreds of
such publications on board, depending on the trade of the ship and the voyages she
is likely to make.
The procedure for navigational chart correction
As said earlier, this is systematic and follows the following sequence- the sequence
is very important for accuracy.

Large corrections

Check the Charts carried on board against the Index of Affected Charts in the NM
Check which notices affect charts on board, and find the Notice in section II
Note that, at the bottom of each notice is a list of all charts affected by it, as well as
the previous notice which affected that chart. This previous notice may be
sometimes years old, but this information assists in confirming that the last
correction(s) have been made on the chart in question.
Check that the previous notice has been applied to the chart (each chart has, at its
bottom left, a list of corrections written on it by whoever corrected the chart. This
information is also available in a separate Chart correction log that is maintained on
board)
If any charts have not been updated, they must be corrected to the previous notice
before the current notice is applied.
Tracings are used to correct charts, when available.
Corrections are made in indelible ink, ensuring that standard symbols are used, that
the correction is made neatly and accurately and does not obscure other
information on the chart.
After correction, an entry is made on the bottom left of the chart as well as the chart
correction log, as indicated earlier

Small corrections

As explained in the first article on chart correction, these mainly consist of Temp and
Preliminary Notices (also called T and P notices) and Navigational warnings (nav
warnings)
The procedure for small corrections is as follows

Sections III and IV (See above) are detached from the NM and file. These give a list
of T and P notices and Nav warnings still in force.
Charts on board and in use in the present voyage are corrected for these notices.
The correction is made in pencil, as explained in the last article. This is because
these notices are transient and will change or vanish. (information available in same
sections III and IV of subsequent NMs)
While on the passage, other T, P notices and Nav Warnings may be received on
Navtex, VHF etc (see previous article). Charts in use will be corrected for these as
the information comes in.

Cumulative Notices to Mariners

cum nm

To assist mariners in chart correction, the British Admiralty started publishing these
in addition to the weekly NMs a couple of decades ago. The salient features of the
Cumulative NMs are as follows:

Published biannually, Jan and June

Contains the numbers of all Notices affecting all the charts that exist for the last 2
years

Latest edition dates of each chart are marked.

The mariner can then, at a quick glance, check that

He has the latest edition of each chart on board (new editions of charts are
published regularly, just like books. When this happens, the older editions are
defunct and must be replaced)
Since he can read off the notices affecting each chart for the last two years, he can
confirm that all corrections on board have been made and marked on either the
chart itself, or in the separate chart correction log.
Note that the Cumulative NM does not give any details of the small corrections like
T/P notices and Nav warnings.

Conclusion
As can be seen, chart correction is a tedious but essential exercise. Done
systematically, it ensures that a mariner is always using a chart that has the most
current information on it- an essential ingredient of safety.

It may be noted that all British Admiralty publications on board- and there are
scores of them- are also corrected in a similar manner, through the use of Notices to
Mariners.