''Chapman Piloting & Seamanship'', published by Hearst Books has been a leading reference book for power and sail boaters for nearly 100 years. Known as "the Bible of Boating", more than 3 million copies have been printed. The 67th edition (2013) has 920 pages, 1,500 full-color illustrations and

chart A chart (sometimes known as a graph) is a graphical representation for data visualization, in which "the data is represented by symbols, such as bars in a bar chart, lines in a line chart, or slices in a pie chart". A chart can represent tabu ...

s, and

exploded view An exploded-view drawing is a diagram, picture, schematic or technical drawing of an object, that shows the relationship or order of assembly of various parts. It shows the components of an object slightly separated by distance, or suspended in ...

s and cutaways and updated with information on federal laws, regulations, and fees. It includes much popular new technology – especially communications and electronic navigation/common surveying equipment:

GPS The Global Positioning System (GPS), originally Navstar GPS, is a Radionavigation-satellite service, satellite-based radionavigation system owned by the United States government and operated by the United States Space Force. It is one of t ...

radar Radar is a detection system that uses radio waves to determine the distance (''ranging''), angle, and radial velocity of objects relative to the site. It can be used to detect aircraft, ships, spacecraft, guided missiles, motor vehicles, w ...

, depth sounders/fish finders, chart plotters. It also reviews most common other marine goods and devices such as engines, solar panels, batteries, pumps and osmosis/treatment units. It contains authoritative information about boating rules, weather, tide, currents, navigation, seamanship for powerboats, small craft, and boats under sail; anchoring, communications, and navigation; inland boating, marlinspike seamanship, and boating customs. It is often used as the text for private boating schools throughout the U.S. It is the officially recommended book for the

U.S. Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, mul ...

's boating education classes and many local

United States Power Squadrons The United States Power Squadrons (USPS) DBA America's Boating Club, is a non-profit educational organization, founded in 1914, whose mission is to improve maritime safety and enjoyability through classes in seamanship, navigation, and other rela ...

History

The work originated in 1917. The original author, Charles Frederic Chapman (1881–1976), was an avid boater, and the editor of Hearst's ''Motor Boating Magazine'' from 1912 to 1968. During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, the U.S. Government needed to train men in the

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral zone, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and ...

, Coast Guard and Merchant Marine to become operators of small boats, including landing craft, utility craft, gigs, patrol craft. Then Assistant U.S. Secretary of the Navy,

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (; ; January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), often referred to by his initials FDR, was an American politician and attorney who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. As the ...

, commissioned Chapman to write a manual that could be used to help provide that training. Chapman did this in three days, drawing largely on articles that had appeared in ''Motor Boating Magazine''. The result was ''Practical Boat Handling'', the first edition of which was published in 1917 with 144 pages, 5 × 7 . From this, the book evolved through many editions into ''Piloting, Seamanship & Small Boat Handling''. The book title has now been shortened to ''Chapman Piloting & Seamanship''. Chapman was one of the original founders of the

Citations and Notes

{{Works about sailing Sailing books Handbooks and manuals