Modern steel ships warp a magnetic compass with both permanent and induced magnetism, and the binnacle is packed with clever countermeasures to cancel it out. This breaks down hard iron vs soft iron ...

What is the difference between a barnacle and a binnacle? Anyone? Anyone? Well, yes, both are related to the sea, but the difference ends there. A barnacle is a small marine animal that likes to ...

A ship’s steel hull becomes part of Earth’s magnetic field, which can quietly skew a magnetic compass in different directions as the vessel turns and heels. This explains how binnacle correctors work, ...

THE subject of this lecture is the gyrostatic compass, often called the gyro-compass. An engineer of my acquaintance was asked if he under-stood what a gyro-compass was, and he replied, “Of course I ...

Capt. John William Hart, who had calibrated ships’ magnetic compasses for more than four decades and was the former owner of Maryland Nautical Sales Inc., died Monday from complications of a broken ...