The Compass

[Pblais]

Compass:A Story of Exploration and Inovation by Alan Gurney

I just finished a great book that anyone with an interest in history and how important the Magnetic Compass really is ought to read. The two concepts of magentic variation and magnetic deviation come home like no other reading I've done. It really shows what navigation skill really means. It really leaves you feeling like the ability to compute longitude was actually secondary to understanding these two factors.

It's a great read about what really happened to cause the current magnetic compass to even come into being. It's filled with all the modern day issues such as politics, power, greed, and more greed. Not much sex, at least not in the book.

It's also a great book about how technology advances and changes the way people think and act or don't change and still act.

You just get the urger to go out and swing ship on a regular basis.

[rsn48]

When was the book you are recommended written? I guess I'm wondering if I pick it up at used book store or in the new book section of a marine store.