Compass : A Story of Exploration and Innovation

Compass chronicles the misadventures of those who attempted to perfect the magnetic compass - so precious to sixteenth-century seamen that, by law, any man found tampering with it had his hand pinned to the mast with a dagger.

In this history of man's search for reliable navigation of treacherous sea routes around the globe, Alan Gurney brings to life the instrument Victor Hugo called "the soul of the ship".