1865.] President's Address. 501 



with the azimuths of celestial objects, or by terrestrial bearings. No iron 

 of any kind should be placed, or should be suffered to remain, within a 

 certain distance of the Standard Compass ; in the British naval service this 

 distance is 7 feet : and all vertical iron, such as stanchions, arm-stands, 

 &c., should be at a still greater distance ; in the British naval service this 

 distance is 14 feet, whether on the same deck or immediately below it. 



.It is not difficult to select a place where the Standard Compass can be 

 most advantageously placed ; but it is difficult, and some more stringent 

 measures are required than at present exist, to induce ship-builders to 

 adapt the arrangements of the vessel to the requirements of the compass. 



3. In respect to those who have to navigate the ship. Every iron ship 

 should be swung when her cargo is complete, and when she is ready in all 

 respects for sea. Tables of the deviation of the Standard Compass on each 

 course should be made according to the directions now universally adopted 

 in Her Majesty's Navy, the tabular deviations being applied as correc- 

 tions to the courses steered. The table of deviations to be carefully 

 watched as the ship proceeds on her voyage, by comparison with the azi- 

 muths of celestial objects, and reformed as changes in the geographical 

 position of the ship, or in the magnetic condition of her iron, take place, 

 according to rules which have been devised for that purpose, confirmed 

 by experience, and published by authority. 



By a strict adherence to the precautions, arrangements, and practices 

 which have been thus briefly sketched, the compass may still, in great 

 measure, retain its place as the invaluable guide to the mariner in iron 

 ships, as it was formerly in wooden ships. 



But with the increased employment of iron increased vigilance is re- 

 quired in those on whom the responsibilities devolve. The assiduous 

 labours of several eminent men, and prominently amongst them of Mr. 

 Smith, have placed it in the power of any intelligent seaman to navigate 

 his iron ship with safety ; but it cannot be too strongly inculcated, that no 

 processes of supposed correction whether tabular or mechanical should 

 be allowed to interfere with the habitual and constant practice of examin- 

 ing the Standard Compass, on all occasions when the state of the heavens 

 will permit, by comparisons with celestial objects. 



The benefits of Mr. Smith's labours have not been confined to our own 

 Navy. The works to which he has contributed have been translated into 

 the German, Russian, and French languages. The British system has been 

 adopted in Hussia, whose vessels have to navigate a sea in which the mag- 

 netic dip, and consequently the deviation of the compass, is even greater 

 than in our own seas. A Compass Observatory has been established at 

 Cronstadt to fulfil the same purposes as our Compass Observatory at 

 Woolwich. Amongst our neighbours the French, whose fleets approximate 

 the nearest to our own in the species of defensive armour which is perilous 

 to their navigation, the system adopted in this country to preserve the 

 utility of the compass has been the subject of a special mission appointed 



