Quote:
A stopped ship isn't headed anywhere.
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Not true in a legal, logbook sense. A vessel in water always has a heading. Speed doesn't enter into it.
Normally it wouldn't matter, except in some obscure admiralty law situation (Dragged anchor, what was anchored heading?) or in cases of high winds or seas where anchored aspect to the elements is a safety issue. But the heading is the direction the bow is facing, moving or not.
In cases where the vessel is going astern the log entry would be "Astern 1/3, making 4 knots, heading 000" even though the hull was moving toward 180 True. The course would be 180; the heading would be 000.