Sundays are not my preferred days to climb Roseberry, as they tend to draw throngs of visitors, making the summit less quiet than I prefer. Nonetheless, this morning, helping the National Trust with their ‘Tea on the Topping’ event, I found myself on the summit, and briefly took in the view towards Cliff Rigg and the Cleveland plain, seemingly in a ‘south by west’ direction.
‘S by W,’ as they abbreviate it to, is one of the sixteen elusive ‘quarter-winds’ of the compass. It sits midway between the ever-familiar south and its sibling, SSW. If one were to measure it in degrees, ‘S by W’ proudly registers 191¼° on the compass.
Ah, the intricacies of the compass rose – a true cartographer’s delight. Within its graceful confines, lay the four cardinal points, valiantly pointing the way: N, E, S, and W. Alongside them, the lesser-known ‘inter-cardinal points’ are found – NE, SE, SW, and NW – forming an essential part of the navigator’s arsenal.
But there are more, for the compass reveals its ‘half-winds.’ Eight they are – NNE, ENE, ESE, SSE, SSW, WSW, WNW, and NNW – adding layers of precision to an already intricate dance of directions.
And still, the compass isn’t done. Sixteen ‘quarter-winds’ stand proud, each bearing its unique combination of two cardinal or inter-cardinal points. NbE, NEbN, NEbE, EbN, and so on and so forth, in the intricate tapestry of the compass rose, offering a full spectrum of choices to the discerning navigator.
In total, there are thirty-two points of the compass — in fact, this system was further extended in the 18th century by the Navy, which bisected the angle between half and quarter-points to give a total of 128 directions.
It was once a test of a skilled seafarer to ‘box the compass.’ With great finesse, they could name of all thirty-two points clockwise and, with equal precision, counterclockwise. Whether this recital demonstrated their mastery in navigation is open to conjecture.
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