Description
"Three principal parts, the card, the needle on its lower suface, and the case. The whole is enclosed in the compass-box, or binnacle. the term compass is said to have been applied to the instrument because the card involves or compasses the whole plane of the horizon, or because the needle indicates the whole circle of possible variations of direction. The surface of the card is divided by radiating lines into 32 parts, each containing 11 degrees." — Encyclopedia Britannica, 1893
