Ship Compass |
| A Shipcompass is a navigational instrument for finding directions on the Earth. It consists of a magnetized pointer free to align itself accurately with Earth's magnetic field, which is of great assistance in navigation. The face of the compass generally highlights the cardinal points of north, south, east and west. The ship compass greatly improved maritime trade by making travel safer and more efficient. A compass can be used to calculate heading, used with a sextant to calculate latitude, and with a marine chronometer to calculate longitude). It thus provides a much improved navigational capability, that has only been recently supplanted by modern devices such as the gyrocompass and the Global Positioning System.
Many enhancements to the ship compass have been developed. A ship compass dial is a small pocket ship compass with a sundial. A variation ship compass is a specific instrument of a delicate type of construction. It is used by observing variations of the needle. An orienteering ship compass consists of a ruggedized needle ship compass permanently attached to a transparent baseplate containing tools to assist the user in working with maps in a field setting .
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