Herald of Steel

Chapter 1003 Compass

Alexander’s trip from the port of Zanzan to Galiosos took exactly 13 days, with the entire journey being mostly uneventful, save for the constant rocking and swing courtesy of the choppy, that soon made both Lady Nanazin and Lady Parthia sea sick as none were accustomed to this rough tumble.

And this tussle meant sadly meant none of those fun times promised to Alexander by them were possible.

Thus the man mostly spent his time with Lord Janus on getting to know the situation a bit better, asking him various in depth questions about the matter, while subsisting on dried, tasteless food and stale water made bearable only through the mixing of copious amounts of vinegar.

While at other times, Alexander would occasionally take a stroll through the ship, both appreciating the old, ‘rustic’ design, taking in the novel sights, but also lampooning its size.

Because although it might not be apparent to the casual modern person, these so called ‘ships’ were more equivalent to a large modern yacht.

They were that small.

But perhaps it was also that that made the thing even more impressive, given each could carry not only 100 men plus crew but all their food and supplies, with the most important one being drinking water.

Alexander had always found it ironic that despite being surrounded on all sides by nothing but never ending spans of water, not a single drop of it was drinkable.

In fact, drinking it was poisonous. .

Thus a substantial portion of the ship’s space was taken up by barrels of drinking water, as given the humid weather and the strenuous act of running the ships, each person had to be allocated about 5 liters of water daily.

Meaning the roughly 150 men and women in each ship had about 20 tons of water for the journey- taking up a staggering one fifth of the ship’s entire cargo capacity- just for that one item.

It was because of this that all ships of the time were very compact, trying to make the best use of every single inch.

But although this resulted in a very efficiently designed structure, it was also very cramped.

Most of the crew slept not on beds as the wooden furniture was deemed too big and bulky, but on hammocks, arranged precariously in rows over each other, which swung gently from hooks along the walls

Their personal possessions, however scant that they may be, were stowed neatly in chests and barrels beneath and besides the hammocks, containing dresses, coins, jewelry, personal possessions, and sometimes even provisions such as salted meat and hardtack biscuits to nibble at before sleep.

The kitchen- known also as the galley occupied one small corner of the vessel, consisting of a simple hearth constructed of brick and stone, being worked on seemingly 24/7 by a team of cooks.

The scent of stew and sizzling meat wafted out of there, mingling with the salty breeze that drifted in through the open hatch above.

And lastly, in the capital’s quarters, lay various navigational instruments, their polished brass surfaces gleaming in the flickering light of oil lamps.

Charts and maps were spread out on a sturdy wooden wall, detailing the course of the ship’s journey and marking the locations of various ports.

Next to them was a brass astrolabe, which was used by sailors to determine their current latitude by measuring the angle between the horizon and the position of celestial bodies, such as the sun or certain stars.

A lead line resided on a hook nearby, which was a weighted line used to measure the depth of water beneath a ship, thus allowing the sailors to avoid running aground in shallow waters.

And lastly, to measure a ship’s speed through the water, were was a log line and knots, which was a length of rope with evenly spaced knots tied at regular intervals. By trailing the log line behind the ship and counting the number of knots that passed overboard in a certain time period, sailors could calculate their speed in knots.

As a side note, this was also how the unit – ‘knots’ came to be.

Alexander toured the various compartments of the ships in his free time if nothing else than to stretch his legs.

And as he did, he also made sure to take note of various things that he thought he could here improve.

Such as replacing those heavy, bulky wooden barrels with ones made of forged sheet iron, thus drastically increasing the cargo capacity.

Or inventing the standard cargo container, which would make loading and unloading ships tens of times easier.

Currently, most ships, carrying their goods in round barrels or even fragile pottery, had to be emptied one item at a time by hand, an extremely tedious process to say the least.

And lastly, Alexander thought of inventing the compass.

In fact, he already had one with him, as a ‘potential’ gift for Lady Margaret.

Because as you might have noticed, the captain’s quarters had no compass.

There was a very primitive version used by some of the most powerful naval powers, consisting of a lodestone, which was a special kind of magnetized iron needle found in nature, floating in a bowl of water, which would then align itself with the Earth’s magnetic field to indicate the two poles.

But the strength of the magnet was usually too weak for it to be able to reliably keep pointing in the same direction, as even the weak surrounding magnetic field would disrupt the navigation.

Heck, well getting close to it wearing something like an iron ring would cause the needle to wobble.

And this was not mentioning the problem with the setup.

Required to be suspended over water, which would constantly be shaking and vibrating due to the ship’s traversal over the rough sea, meaning many times, ‘north and south’ changed depending on the weather, or even the side the ship tilted on!

And all of these problems did not even address the most pressing matter, that it would lose its magnetism over time.

So you might be traveling to some distant land and then suddenly the compass loses its magnetism with you none the wiser.

One could only imagine the catastrophe that would cause, when at sea, with no reference point, your east and west became north depending on which side of the instrument you chose to look it at.

This great unreliability was why this primitive compass was not yet in regular use, another being that despite its limited utility, it was still a heavily protected secret by most of the powers possessing it.

Because some navigation was better than none.

Hence the instrument was only fitted in the largest and most important ships of the nations.

And Alexander wished to do the same for his new and improved item too.

Only giving it to his most trusted admirals and allies.

As for whether Lady Margaret fell into that category, it remained to be seen.

Alexander intended to use this item only as a trump card in the following negotiations, to entice the Margraves to follow him in exchange for this technology, should the circumstances become grave enough to deem it so.

That’s why it was a potential gift.

And remembering this, Alexander took it out to gaze at the tool, finding the craftsmanship quite beautiful.

The circular disk that lay within his palm was made of solid, cast iron painted gold, with the directions and lines written a mixture of blue and gold.

There was a large, clear glass covering the disk’s surface, to make it that grand, and through it, Alexander could see the steel magnetic needle, shaped like a beautiful diamond and painted matt black.

It was placed on a hinge right on the center of the disk and laying evidence to its strong magnetism, remained sturdy like a mountain despite the constant pitch and yaw of the vessel, always pointing to the poles. 𝘪𝘳.𝘤𝑜

Alexander had made this once normal steel needle magnetic by aligning the chaotic magnetic domains within the steel into an organized straight line.

To do this, first, he had to get hold of a permanent magnet.

This he did by getting one of those lodestones- something that was easily found in the iron mines he owned.

With this in hand, we then identified the north and south poles of the permanent magnet.

This was child’s play given Alexander of course knew which direction his house faced relative to the absolute directions.

With this, he took the permanent magnet and ensuring that the north pole of the magnet was facing the steel needle, began to stroke the steel along its length repeatedly in one direction.

So he rubbed the permanent magnet up against the needle and then disengaging, brought the permanent magnet back to start all over again.

Alexander did not just go back and forth because then he would then align the needle’s magnetic domains to the north when going up and then south when coming down, wasting all his effort.

Thus, it had to be done in only one direction.

He continued to repeat stroking the steel with the magnet, regularly checking against a pile of iron filings to check for the level of magnetism.

And finally stopped once he was satisfied with the strength, and watched with amazement as when the needle was suspended using a string, it naturally turned to face the poles..

Viola! The world’s first magnetic compass had been invented.

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