About Reeds
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About Reeds
From its depression-era roots to its continued success in the age of electronic navigation, REED’S Nautical Almanac has served countless thousands of ships, yachts, and small craft in peace and war. It has saved lives, helped deliver babies, and taught sound navigation skills to generations of sailors. Hundreds of people have assisted its publication over the years creating an indispensible annual compendium of navigational data for yachtsmen. The Almanac has a tradition of year on year improvement and meticulous presentation of all the data required for safe navigation.
Published in January 1932, the first edition of REEDS Home Trade Nautical Almanac and Tide Tables was 990 pages long and an instant success. REED'S Almanac owes its existence to the inspired dedication of one man: Oswald M. Watts. Following publication, Watts began work on the second edition, bolstered by scores of appreciative letters from professional seamen and yachtsmen alike. Many offered helpful suggestions that Watts was able to incorporate into subsequent editions, a tradition of reader feedback that continues today.
During the 1930s Watts opened a chandlery off London's Piccadilly where he continued to compile and edit successive editions of Reed's . When the war clouds began to gather over Europe, Watts started a sea school where yachtsmen could learn what they would need to know to serve in the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve in the coming conflict. When war finally broke out, the Reed's Nautical Almanac that had been a convenience for sailors became a lifeline for professional mariners.
As the bombs fell on London during the Blitz, Watts continued to work on the next year's Almanac. In the preface to the 10th edition, he wrote: "No new features have been introduced into Reed's Almanac for 1941 for the main reason that the majority of the pages have been prepared in London during night after night of incessant bombing and gunfire, which has made it a physical impossibility. We in London are glad to bear many of the horrors of modern warfare so that some at least may be lifted from the shoulders of our seafarers Royal and Merchant Navy men both." Reed's finest hour came in 1944, when the government ordered 3,000 extra copies of the Almanac for use on vessels involved in the Normandy D-Day landings.
After the war, yachtsmen who had served in the Royal and Merchant Navies continued to use Reed's Almanac, which had seen them through the hostilities. The Almanac had become what Watts had promised: as essential as a compass and, aboard many boats, the only reference apart from charts that any navigator ever used. Watts continued to edit Reed's until his retirement in 1981; he died only a few years afterward.
Reed's Nautical Almanac has continued to maintain the standard for complete and accurate information set by Capt. Watts. Every edition since World War II has incorporated new features and improvements. Many have been culled from readers' suggestions or have reflected new technologies being used on board, while others were simply dreamt up by Watts and the editors who followed him. Signal flags were joined by satellite navigation. Sections on first aid, customs regulations, and lifeboat navigation were added. A doctor friend of Watts even wrote a section on childbirth at sea, which was later used by yachtsman Colin Swale to deliver his wife Rosie's 12-lb. baby on board the couple's 30-foot catamaran off the coast of Italy. "We never thought it would be used," Watts said of the section, which has since been expanded and updated.
Producing an online version of this famous publication is therefore a natural step forward. REEDS Nautical Online Almanac is a new feature-packed online format, providing all the essential navigational data and information contained in the book as well as comprehensive topical marine information.
To use the internet for the Almanac is an obvious solution given that the considerable amount of data can be searched and retrieved in seconds and automatically updated. Data sets are organised on a regional and then port-by-port basis. The service offers many essential seafaring tools and a significant advantage is that information will be updated in real time.
The website will continue the Almanac’s tradition of focussing on the quality and accuracy of information, as well as the same meticulous presentation of data for safe passage making.
The site will carry world class navigational content to include news and features such as podcasts, product reviews, chandlery, brokerage, berthing guide, port services and yachtsman’s forum, engine fault finder and events calendar.
REEDS Nautical Online Almanacs Ltd will maintain the spirit of progression and innovation that has been a hallmark of REEDS down the years, and very much in keeping with Capt Watt’s pioneering, original idea.
