Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1896-08-06
SCIENCE IN A MODERN wARsHIP
Difference Between Naval officers To-
day and Fifty Years Ago,

The modern naval officer is required
TO be more Of scientist than a sea-
man. The application of the sciences
abroad a big ship has done away with
the necessity for commissioned officers
possessing practical and perfect
knowledge of the mysteries of reefing,
handling and steering. The modern
naval officer is of necessity a splendid
mathematician an able meteorologist,
a good electrician and a competent en-
gineer This in addition 70 the primal
requirements of gunnery, swordsman
ship, courage and activity,
In navigating a modern steel ship
many difficulties are incurred which do
not enter into the problem where
wooden fabric is involved Most of
the multiplied yagaries of the compass
under the combined influences of the
steel in the ships hull and armament,
the magnetic forces generated by the
motion of the propellers and shafts
and the induction diffused by the ships
electrical plant. Each of these causes
adds several varying degrees to the
natural deviation of the compass, and
each must be compensated for in some
way. Thus the compasses of a steel
war ship, after their primal corrections
for natural deviation, must be correct
ed again to compensate for the at
traction welded by the longitudinal
steel and iron in the ship, the attrac-
tion of the horizontal iron and the
differing degrees Of attraction ex-
ercised by the mass 4 the ship when
''heeled' over in a seaway. These
only few of the variations to be con-
sidered-are compensated for in sew
eral ways. The longitudinal irons at
traction is negatized by two balls of
soft iron, adjusted on the plane of the
compass card. That of the horizontal
able tray of magnets, carried in the
pinnacle underneath the compass
magnets. The angle of list or heel,
and consequent variation of the degree
of attraction by the ships mass, is
compensated for, ! believe, by steel
brass pinnacle stand All these adj
iustments and corrections are only
temporary, for the curve of deviation
varies in different ATTITUDES and in re-
lation to the curves of the natural
magnetic currents. Hence by mathe-
NAUTICAL calculation of infinitesimal eX-
actitude these known and estimated
errors and vagaries Of the tombstone
needle" are discounted, and the naval
officer usually comes much nearer to
knowing his exact position than is
comprehended in the assertion of an
eminent authority that the average
error of marine computation of posi-
tion is 3.6 miles"
The errors Of chronometers ia any
sort of ships are vexing matters until
a long record of the daily and hourly
performance of each chronometer
under varying conditions of temper
ature and climate enable a close esti-
nation of probable performance to be
made Even then The modern naval
navigator uses no less than three chro-
nometers, the daily sain or loss Of each
by Greenwich time being as frequently
figured as possible, and the daily reck-
oning being figured on the mean varia-
ton sometimes less than one-tenth
of a seeond-of the three.
So closely are these chronometers
watched that d thermometer is kept in
tho case and variations of temperature
are taken into account in figuring their
deviation. And though a ehronCmeter
will run month or so, they are wound
precisely at s o'clock every morning
and so important is this prompt wind
ing estimated that 1t is daily reported
to the captain or commanding officer
In gun practice, steam and electric en-
cheering aboard ship, science is as
closely applied as it is in navigation
The evolution from the galleys of the
Punic fleet to the rteel cruisers of our
modern navy shows in its primal and
final types of vessels scarcely more Of
difference than may be seen In the