WHO ARE THE ROLE PLAYERS IN THE ECDIS WORLD AND WHAT ARE THESE ROLES

Before a consideration of the world of ECDIS can be made the scene mus t be set as, while ECDIS is a great innovation and possible boon to th e mariner and his navigator, this is not a process that started yester day. It is obvious that seas, lakes or any other water on which vessel s travel have the potential to conceal dangers that an equivalent land traveler would not experience. Mariners have relied therefore, throug h the centuries, on information that they have obtained themselves, us ually by bitter experience, or from other sources. Some of this data m ay have been collected as part of the normal passage of a vessel and s ome as a result of specific surveys or expeditions being undertaken. D uring the 15th to 19th centuries this type of information was vital to successful trading by nations or companies. This information was not in the public domain and was exclusive to the interests of those who h eld that information. Some of the major trading nations of this period were the Portuguese, Dutch, Spanish, English and other European natio ns that were involved either in colonisation or trade. Some of the com panies of this time were the Dutch East India Company and the East Ind ia Company. The risks involved in not being aware of dangers, or even just the configuration of a coast, were high and this meant that disti nct advantages were held by those who held this knowledge. A parallel exists today in the fishing industries where particular information re lated to the seabed is kept secret by a fishing company for its own us e and in some cases by the skipper of the vessel himself. Sketches wer e drawn by early navigators but more often a written log was kept in w hich as much information of use to the mariner was recorded. The numbe r of participants involved in this process was small and usually compr ised either the mariner and his navigator, or the mariners within a pa rticular company or State. Later as the art of nautical cartography de veloped this would include a surveyor and a cartographer. An indicatio n of the importance of this information is the fact that between 1780 and 1820 the English alone had 19 major survey expeditions spread arou nd the world from Canada to Australia. Famous names such as Vancouver, Flinders, Cook and Bligh were synonymous with these efforts.