Description
"Compass, Mariner's, is the name given to the instrument by which sailors are enabled to steer their course on the ocean out of sight of land, and when neither sun nor stars are visible. the ancients, to whom it was unknown, could seldom venture to lose sight of the coast. The direct power of the magnet seems to have been unknown in Europe till late in the 12th century." — Chambers' Encyclopedia, 1875
