nautical charts
Sailor's navigation aids
Nautical charts are maps designed for marine navigation, showing water depths, shorelines, hazards, and navigational aids like buoys and lighthouses.
Unlike land maps, they emphasize what lies beneath the surface—sandbars, reefs, channels—and include information about tides and currents.
The captain consulted the nautical chart before entering the harbor.
- soundingsMeasured water depths
- latitudeGeographic or personal freedom
- compass roseCartographic direction indicator
- hydrographyStudy of water bodies
- magnetic variationCompass-to-true north angle
tide tables · safe passage · bathymetry · cartography · map · tidal currents · depths · longitude · territorial waters · reefs · buoys · scale · plotting · Mercator projection · passage · harbors · channels · coordinates
- maritimeships, ship, boat, boats, anchors
- Age of ExplorationColumbus, Marco Polo, exploration, explorers, expeditions
- Mappingmap, digital maps, compass rose, GPS, latitude
- Maritime ExplorationColumbus, Magellan, voyage, Age of Discovery, circumnavigation
- maritime historysailors, ships, seamen, sailing ships, merchant ships
- Maritime Industryshipping lines, container ships, merchant ships, steamships, merchant marine
domain of navigation
nautical chartsroad maps
Printed route diagrams
road atlases · highway maps · street maps · topographic maps · hiking maps