#naval navigation

This folding compass and dial was made in about 1600 to 1620 in Nuremberg in Germany, attributed to Hans Reinmann II (d.1627)

"A year later, in September 1839, Ross took command of HMS Terror and Erebus and commenced a four-year expedition to the Antarctic. Ross and Terror's captain, Francis Crozier, performed magnetic experiments as they sailed down the Atlantic and across the Indian Ocean, setting up magnetic observatories at St Helena, Cape Town and Hobart. These would, initially, be sites of scientific activity quite distinct from existing colonial astronomical observatories but, within a few years, the Cape's magnetic and astronomical observatories would merge together into a single research institution. Although disappointed to find that the South Magnetic Pole was far inland, Ross went on to determine its approximate location in 1841 and returned to Britain in 1843 with a wealth of magnetic data."

A plan of mathematical learning taught in the Royal Academy, Portsmouth, exercise book belonging to Midshipman Edmund Nagel Rice of HMS Topaze, c. 1798-1799.

An 18th century English pocket globe

This navigation tool was used to calculate time at night. Similar to an astrolabe or a sundial clock. A pointer, much like a hand on a  clock, determines the time at night based on the position of the North  Star in relation to another constellation, such as Ursa Minor (the  Little Dipper).

Seven brass sundials with compass and a pocket globe, France, England, 18th -19th century

Pocket sundial, a Butterfield dial compass for navigation and timekeeping, by Edmund Culpeper, 1695-1725

Adam's New Globe of the Earth, 1808, pocket globe, approx. 8 cm