The word Navigation still retains the broad meaning it had in 1570, when John Dee wrote: ‘The Arte of Navigation, demonstrateth how, by the shortest good way, by the aptest Direction, & in the shortest time, a sufficient Ship, between any two places (in passage Navigable,) assigned: may be conducted: and in all stormes, & naturall disturbances chauncyng, how, to use the best possible meanes, whereby to recover the place first assigned’. But for the purposes of the Science Museum it is convenient to restrict the scope of the so-called Navigation Collection to objects illustrating the development of methods of determining a vessel's position and course. Exhibits illustrating the other aspects of navigation are placed in the Marine Engineering and Aeronautical collections.