Lessons in the museum are organised within the framework of the project “Marine simulator of historic navigation systems as a means to promote knowledge of their operation in the historical times”. One of such lessons took place on 24th October 2014 and was attended by primary school pupils.

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The exhibition displays museum artefacts and navigation simulators. Among them there is one of the project results - a navigation simulator comprising two different navigational posts historically separated by over a thousand years. The first is an interactive simulator of a Viking solar compass, which would use the sun to define directions. The original specimen was discovered by a team of Prof. Władysław Filipowiak in Wolin in 2000. This was a wooden disk from 11th century, interpreted by contemporary researchers as a solar compass (National Museum of Szczecin made it available for the exhibition). The second part is the Decca Navigator - a no-longer existing navigational positioning system (the first hyperbolic land-based navigation system developed shortly after the war).

To construct the new simulator also historical devices were used, ones that come from the collections of the National Museum and the Maritime University of Szczecin. They were altered so that they would again be fit for showing directions and determining one’s position at sea. With an aim of reflecting actual conditions of a given navigational situation from the past, both systems were connected to two- and three-dimensional ship movement simulator with graphic interface and 3-D visualisation adjusted to the historical times presented. A virtual sailor is thus able to see basic functioning principles of a transmitter, attune a genuine receiver and even to get a bird’s eye view on the waves rippling on the water. A bow of a Viking boat appears on a big screen, together with a horizon line while a mobile multimedia device displays a simulation of how a solar compass works. The device enables virtual navigation in the open sea with an aim of arriving at a specified place. The projects were completed by a consortium comprising Navigation Faculty at the Maritime University of Szczecin and the National Museum of Szczecin whose teams designed the whole system - mathematical models of two main units: solar compass and the Decca Navigator system.

To carry out the project “Marine simulator of historic navigation systems as a means to promote knowledge of their operation in the historical times”, Maritime University of Szczecin and the National Museum were allocated a PLN 200 000 grant from the Ministry of Science and Higher Education (programme Ścieżki Kopernika / Paths of Copernicus) as well a designated grant from the Marshall of the West Pomeranian region. The project was the only one in the region to become approved for financing from the Ministry. Lucjan Gucma, PhD habilit., from the Maritime University of Szczecin is the manager of the project. The originator of the whole concept as well as the curator of the exhibition is Tomasz Budzan, PhD from the National Museum of Szczecin.

At the exhibition, visitors are given an opportunity to see radio receivers of a hyperbolic navigation system (DECCA, Navigator, Omega, LORAN) as well as a contemporary solar compass and navigation maps.

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Decca Navigator

The DECCA Navigator navigation system operating between 1947-2001 was a significant milestone in navigation. Before that, one’s position had been determined on the basis of astronavigation techniques - by means of a sextant, chronometer, the accuracy of which had not surpassed a few nautical miles. Decca was a breakthrough change in the navigation, most probably a greater one than contemporary GPS. Since that moment, with positioning accuracy up to a few dozen meters, taking a cruise or a flight has entirely changed.