Introduction
The Port Atlas is a very powerful tool used for locating and displaying information of Ports around the World.
More information is available in the following sections:
The main screen is split into three distinct areas:-
Search controls
Port Search key
Here you enter the name or partial name of the port you are looking for.
Select Country
Select the Country you wish to restrict the search to, select the blank country at the top of the list to search all countries.
On the currently displayed Map
If checked the search will be restricted to the area covered by the currently displayed Map.
Set centre map from selected port
If checked the position of the currently selected port will be copied into the Centre Map At position field. This is useful if you wish to centre the map over a particular port, adjust the scale of the map and search for ports close to the selected port.
Only Distance Table Ports
If checked will restrict the search to ports contained within the current release of the Distance Tables.
Centre Map At
Will centre the map on the location specified in the position field to the right of the button.
There are many different ways of searching for ports that can be built from combinations of three the basic methods of searching. These three basic methods are:-
Searching by name
A simple search would consist of entering the first few letters of the port name as the search key and clicking the Search button or hitting the Enter key. This will result in a list of all the ports that begin with the letters entered. As an example, entering 'po' as the search key and clicking the search button will result in something similar to the following list:-
Pohang
Point Breeze
Point Central
Point Comfort
Point de Grave...
Notice all the ports begin with the letters 'po' and are listed in alphabetical order.
You can modify the search key by using wildcard characters. The wildcard characters supported are:-
* - Meaning any number of characters
? - Meaning a single character
Thus entering a search key of *b*e?n will look for all ports with any number of characters before the letter b any number of characters after that followed by the letter e followed by any single character and then the letter n. Running this search would result in a list of ports similar to this:-
Aberdeen, U.K.
ASL - Pulau Bawean
Bandar Iman Khomeini...
Searching By Country
Simply select the desired country form the list provided and click the search key
Searching for ports on the currently displayed map
Zoom the map in to the desired area, check the box labelled 'On the currently displayed map and then hit the search key.
You can restrict the search to scan only those ports in the current version of the Distance Tables by checking the 'Only distance table ports' box.
You can combine the methods above to form more complex searches such as:-
Find all the Russian ports in the Distance Tables on the East coast of Russia located around Sakalin Island that contain the letter 'v' The image below shows the results of such a search.
It is also possible, using the search on map facility in combination with the Centre Map At fucntion to find the nearest port to a specific location or another port.
As an example let us assume you have a ship located at 56 degrees North, 3 Degrees East in the middle of the north Sea and want to find the nearest ports on the English Coast. You can accomplish this using the following steps:-
| 1. | Clear any existing search using the Clear Search Button. |
| 2. | Enter the position of the ship in the position field next to the 'Centre Map At' button. |
| 3. | Click the 'Centre Map At' button. This will centre the map on the exact location you have entered. |
| 4. | Using the Zoom mode of the map, zoom the map in till you have the whole of the East coast of the UK visible. |
| 5. | Check the 'On the currently displayed map box' |
| 6. | Click the search button. |
| 7. | Use the Measure tool to establish the nearest port. |
The video below illustrates this search
Right click on the image above and select play to run the movie.
Once you have completed a search, you will have a list of ports displayed. The list of ports has the following functionality:-
When you select a port, a bright red marker will appear on the location of the port. The act of selecting a port will not scroll the port into view if the port is NOT located on the currently displayed map.
'Double clicking' the mouse on a port name will centre the map on that port and zoom into the surrounding area.
The Port Atlas has a very small subset of the Port Information supplied by Lloyd's Register Fairplay from their web based Portguide. This information is general in nature and is displayed in a scrolling text box below the map window.
The image below shows the information for the port of Aberdeen in the UK.
