ACTION OF IRON SAND &e., ON VESSELS’ COMPASSES.

Poverty Bay Standard, Volume II, Issue 125, 22 January 1874, Page 2

ACTION OF IRON SAND &e., ON VESSELS’ COMPASSES.

The following is from a reccnt G j Government Gazette It haying transpired, from evidence tendered in the course of inquiries into wrecks, that several shipwrecks on the coasts of this Colony have lieen attributed to the action of Iron Sand, fog or electricity upon vessels’ compasses,’ the following extracts from the “ Admiralty Manual for the Deviations of the Compass are published for general information :— “ ‘ It has been sometimes supposed that fogs and peculiar states of the atmosphere affect the compass, There appears, however, to be no ground for this supposition. No ordinary meteorological phenomenon appears to have any appreciable effect on the compass ; from this, of course, must be excepted the occasional effect of lightning in reversing the poles of the needle, or, indeed, rendering it useless/ “* It is also sometimes supposed that when a ship is near land, the nature of the land affects the direction of the compass The effect of particular rocks on the direction of the needle is very perceptible when a compass is taken on shore, and is in close proximity to volcanic and other igneous rocks; but there seems no ground for believing that this influence is perceptible on board ship.’ “William H. Reynolds.”