It would have been nice to have a GPS then.
SINS (nuclear sub inertial nav system) was “pretty” good, but never really trusted. We got a Navsat fix (precurser, literally!) to today’s GPS system every time we came for radio pickup from the satellite. Sometimes, when the Navsat satellites were in the wrong place, that’d mean you’d hang around for another hour at PD just to find out you were where you thought you were when you started....
Now, GPS is near instantaneous, and on the car dashboard.
I think a lot of people thought the USN was “way ahead” a lot further than we really were w/r simple surface and sub-surface navigation as late as the mid-80’s. But surface nav is simple when max speeds are less than 35 knots, and most of the time you’re poking around at 10-15. Or underwater at 3-12 knots. Doing 660 knots near the poles?
You can have it.
“Turn south, I’ll figure out where we are when we get there. Most of the closest land is friendly anyway.”
Ah yeah - I remember SINS. You tell it where it is, and it tells you where you are.