Compass Ring
Description
Compass ring from a cast bronze compass bowl. The compass forms part of the navigation suite of tools for the ship. It held a compass card, thought to be made of Mica, with its attached magnet or magnets mounted on a central pivot. The compass card was divided into 32 parts called points. Each part is subdivided into four additional points with the whole divided into 360 degrees. This mariner’s compass bowl was found in an oak-gimballed box in the forward half of the ship along with sounding leads and parts of a sandglass. Pieces of broken glass were found within the compass bowl along with other semi-transparent pieces thought to be part of the compass card. It is commonly believed that the mariner's compass was introduced into Europe in the fifteenth century, but it seems to have been well known in a primitive form in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.
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Object Detail
Breadth: 70mm