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Matthew Flinders and Ship Magnetism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 November 2009

Charles H. Cotter
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Extract

It appears that the earliest recorded reference to the effect of the magnetism of a ship or her fittings on the magnetic compass was made by the Portuguese explorer João de Castro in his Roteiro de Lisboa a Goa of 1538. João noticed that the compass he used to observe for variation was affected by iron objects on board placed near to the compass.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Navigation , Volume 29 , Issue 2 , April 1976 , pp. 123 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © The Royal Institute of Navigation 1976

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References

REFERENCES

1vide Harradon, H. D. (1944). Some early contributions to the history of geomagnetism —VII. Terr. Mag. and Atmos.Elec. Vol. 49.Google Scholar
João de Castro's journals of voyages made in 1538—39 and 1541 were transmitted by Joao to his sovereign, the Infante Dom Luiz, and they remained practically unused in Portuguese archives until they were first published in the nineteenth century. The Roteiro de Lisboa a Goa, annotated by João de Andrade Corvo, was published in Lisbon in 1882; and the Primeiro Roteiro da Costa da India desde Goa até Dio was published in Porto in 1843.Google Scholar
2May, W. E. (1947). Historical notes on the deviation of the compass. Terr. Mag. And Atmos. Elect. Vol. 52.Google Scholar
3Flinders, M. (1814). A Voyage to Terra Australis Undertaken for the Purpose of Completing the Discovery of that Vast Country, and Prosecuted in the years 1801, 1802, and 1803 in His Majesty's Ship the Investigator… in two volumes, London, p. 525.Google Scholar
4Quoted in Walker, R. (1794). A Treatise on Magnetism with a Description and Explanation of a Meridional and Azimuth Compass, London.Google Scholar
5vide May, W. E. (1947). op cit. p. 228, in which the earliest use of the expression 'deviation' appears to have been by John Ross in 1819.Google Scholar
6Ritchie, G. S. (1974). Matthew Flinders, Hydrographer, This Journal, 27, 283.Google Scholar
7Flinders, M. (1814). op. cit. Vol. I, p. CX1X.Google Scholar
8Mack, J. D. (1966). Matthew Flinders 1774–1814, London, p. 202.Google Scholar
9Flinders, M. (1850). Concerning the Differences in the Magnetic Needle, on Board the Investigator, arising from an Alteration in the Direction of the Ship's Head… Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London. Vol. 95, pp. 186–197.Google Scholar
10Flinders, M. Ms. 60/017 FLI/7. National Maritime Museum, Greenwich.Google Scholar
11Mack, J. (1966). op. cit. p. 224.Google Scholar
12Flinders, M. (1814), op. cit. p. 513.Google Scholar
13Ibid. p. 532.Google Scholar