E F, is the inner box, which contains the card and needle.
G H, one of its axes, by which it is suspended on the ring C D.
I, is a place cut out in the wood, serving as an handle.
The magnet or needle appears passing though the center, together with a small brace of ivory that confines the cap to its place.
The card is a single varnished paper, reaching as far as the outer circle of figures, which is a circle of thin brass; the edge whereof is turned down at right angles to the plane of the card, in order to stiffen it.
The compass is retained in the binacle at sea, as exhibited in plate [I]. fig. 6. For the other parts of the compass represented in the figure, see the article Azimuth.
COMPASSING, devers, a name given by shipwrights to such pieces of timber as are incurvated into the figure of an arch, whether circular, elliptical, or otherwise.
COMPTROLLER of the navy, one of the principal officers of the Navy-board, at which he presides, to direct the inferior and civil department of the marine, as the admiralty superintends the superior and military operations of it.
CONVOY, conserve, (convoyer, Fr.) a fleet or navy of merchant-ships bound on a voyage to some particular part or general rendezvous.
Convoy also implies the ship or ships appointed to conduct and defend them on their passage thither.