“Certainly,” answered Buck, “I said we’d sail east as the crow flies.”
“Well,” responded Alan, “we’ll never sail exactly east. Do you know what a great circle course is?”
The good natured Buck blushed and shook his head.
“It’s an imaginary line that shows the shortest distance between two parts of the world and it’s curved because the maps we generally use represent the curve of the globe and a straight line on these wouldn’t show the shortest distance,” volunteered Bob promptly and proudly. “But I didn’t know it ran over Connecticut.”
“Correct,” exclaimed Alan.
“But what’s all these figures?” went on Buck.
“They’re to keep us on our course. You’ll find the same charts in the navigating room of every liner. With these and our compass we hope to cross the Atlantic without attempting an astronomical observation for our bearings.”
“But out here on the Atlantic you’ve got a path laid down in ink. And between Ipswich and where you leave Newfoundland you haven’t any path!” continued the inquisitive Buck.
“For this reason,” explained Ned. Then, pausing, he continued, “Bob, you ought to understand this. You were with us in Bering Straits and Beaufort Sea. You tell him why.”
“Pie,” grunted Bob. “Maybe you think I don’t know. On short legs,” and he winked, proud of his nautical record, “where there isn’t much variation in the compass—”