Detecting Direction
One of the most important aspects of navigation was knowing which direction the ship was travelling in. However, this was not simply a case of pointing the vessel in the right direction and hoping for the best. Forces such as sea winds and swell could always combine to push a ship off course. Sailors therefore needed an instrument which allowed them to keep detecting their direction. #SUBHEADING# Compass craze! #SUBHEADINGEND# The compass has for centuries been one of the most widely used and enduring of all navigation instruments. It is believed that Europeans began using compasses from about the 12th century, but people in other places were using them well before. Compasses are normally used to show direction, but variations on the model have been used for other purposes. For example, a Chinese geomantic compass in the Hull Maritime Museum collection was used for divination. The compass was one of the first instruments which allowed sailors to begin leaving sight of the land. If they knew which direction their destination was and they had a compass to keep on track, they had at least some chance of getting there! The compass collection at Hull Maritime Museum ranges from the very simply crafted to the very decorative and precisely-made, and from tiny pocket-sized pieces to those which not even the largest pocket could carry! Some are in wooden circular drums, some in leather cases and others in square hinged boxes. #SUBHEADING# All directions #SUBHEADINGEND# A compass recorded whether a ship was travelling North, South, East, West or somewhere in-between! The directions were labelled on a 'compass rose' - a piece of card which a wire needle spun either below or above. Sometimes, the compass was mounted on 'gimbals' which allowed the compass to tilt so that it was not affected by the movement of the ship. The compass needle, being magnetic, was attracted to the Earth's magnetic north pole so always pointed in that direction. By looking at it sailors could always tell where north was and therefore which direction they were travelling in. However, from the 19th century ships' hulls began to be made of iron, and this metal interfered with the compass' ability to work. This could be fatal if a deviation in the compass reading caused a vessel to go off course. A device called a binnacle was invented to correct this error. This was a tall tower which housed the compass in the top and contained various iron components which corrected the magnetic deviation. Over time, a compass could lose its magnetism and would therefore stop working. A lodestone was stroked over the needle to help it re-magnetise. This was a natural magnetic stone which was bound in a metal such as copper. Lodestones were popular in the seventeenth century until they were replaced by man-made magnets during the eighteenth century.
Locating Location
Today sailors use electrical equipment to find their position at sea but sailors of the past relied on simple navigation tecniques to travel the worlds oceans. Discover how they relied on the skies to map their location.
Telling the Time
Today sailors use electrical equipment to find their position at sea but sailors of the past relied on simple navigation tecniques to travel the worlds oceans. Discover they relied on the sun and stars to tell the time when travelling through diferent time zones.
Hull and the Whaling Industry
At its height Hull could boast one of the largest and most successful whaling fleets in Britain. Discover how it all began, how the whalers' braved arctic conditions to catch their whales and how the introduction of steam powered vessels signalled a decline for the Hull whaler.
