This Thesis reports on a study of the ways in which officer cadets study the Collision Regulations at Britannia Royal Naval College (BRNC), which is widely held to be difficult and, anecdotally, leads to a high failure rate on testing. The research is opportunistic since my background both in the Royal Navy and as a civilian lecturer at BRNC facilitated unprecedented access and the potential for original discoveries. I took a mixed-methods approach with both quantitative and qualitative features within a pragmatic paradigm, based upon an eclectic selection of methodological models to suit the case, in order to achieve a measure of triangulation upon the learning with the aim of understanding it: I chose not to be bound by anyone theoretical perspective. In order to facilitate this I set five research questions. My aim was to add to the existing body of research on learning in order to generate some practical recommendations for improving learning the Collision Regulations to the benefit of the College and the wider seafaring community. I reached four principal conclusions: first, that there were a number of practical ways in which the learning could be improved; second, that the biggest single factors in determining success or failure were the attitude towards learning and the confidence exhibited by the students; third, that the failure-rate is not as high as expected and the majority of students at this level do not find it as difficult as anecdotal and historical evidence suggests and fourth, that to describe and understand the unique context of learning at BRNC requires a combination of several theoretical approaches to learning.