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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIII, Issue 7657, 7 June 1886, Page 4

The numerous shipping disasters which have of late occurred on this coast, especially to steamers, and mostly occasioned by these having run out of their proper course, although, according to th& evidence of the ships' officers, it was supposed that the right course was being followed, suggests the question whether sufficient attention is paid by the nautical authorities of the colony to the urgent necessity of frequent and searching tests being applied to verify the accuracy of the compasses. The Board of Trade regulations of the United Kingdom are very stringent on this point. Ships have to be swung periodically, and, in iron ships especially, too much importance can hardly be attached to this precaution. The following extract from a late number of the Nautical Magazine affords an instance of the necessity for enforcement of this rule : —" A large passenger ship was built with her head nearly south, and fitted 1 in the same direction. Her compasses were carefully adjusted, and after that she remained swinging to her anchor in a tide-way, so that her head turned to different directions each tide for a week. Before she left for her first voyage, I went on board to ascertain the errors of her standard compass, as I expected to find a considerable change. I found on some points there was as much as lOdegs. of difference of error from what there had been a week before. The ship by swinging to her anchor for a week had lost an amount of magnetism sufficient to produce an error of lOdegs. on the compass. Since that time several other ships, similar in every way, have been built by the same builders for the same company, but they have been turned round after launching, and there has been comparatively little change in their magnetism. The importance of this was pointed out thirty years ago by Dr. Scoresby, and recommended by the late Sir Frederick Evans, but shipbuilders and others are in much need of being reminded of it now."