Do You Know How to Use a Compass?

Prepping for survival? Then you need to know!

It's a common item that way too many people have no concept of how to use. Too many people get lost and then try to use the compass to "point the way home", without knowing how they got to where they are in the first place. It's sad but if you ask anyone on any given day, which direction is North, way too many will not know the correct relation to where they are at that time. Try it... it's fun! How many times have you offered directions by telling someone "take this road to the freeway and go north on Rt-123," only to have them ask... "wait, is that I turn right or left?"

The compass as we know it was first invented as a device for divination as early as the Chinese Han Dynasty and was used "in the search for gems and the selection of sites for houses." The compass was used in Song Dynasty China by the military for navigational orientation by 1040-1044 and was used for maritime navigation by 1117. The use of a compass is recorded in Western Europe between 1187 and 1202 and in Persia in 1232. The dry compass was invented in Europe around 1300.(Wikipedia). Without a compass, I don't think Columbus would have discovered the "new world" in 1492! At least, not right off!

A compass is an instrument that was designed to align or point to the magnetic North pole of the world. It always points north and south. With that information, early explorers could tell direction easily. Prior to the compass, the only way to navigate was by use of the stars and knowing the celestial composition. However that went out the window on cloudy and rainy nights. The invention of the compass and using it to navigate enabled explorers to travel the seas and lands with no fear of becoming lost or not knowing their approximate location.

But today, with the advent of the GPS systems and reliance on the global satellites, the compass has taken a back seat to the marvels of modern electronics, space travel and orbiting communication satellites. You simply turn the GPS on, it locks on to your device, coordinates with no less than three satellites and then gives you point by point directions, speed of travel and turn by turn communications to get you where you are going. Nice! A friend of mine went hunting in the northern part of Maine. Really dense country! I mean the kind of country you can get really, really lost in, in a hurry! He had his trusty GPS and when he left the camp, he marked a waypoint on the GPS and proceeded to go into the "big woods" as the Maine inhabitants call it. As he traveled the woods his trusty GPS was there monitoring his every move and his location, or so he thought. When it came time to return to camp, he reached into his pocket and turned the GPS on to get his return directions, only to find out that his batteries had died. No GPS! He managed to return to camp, but it was a long and arduous journey. And the first thing he bought when he got home was a good compass... just in case!

With all of this electronic stuff we must remember that if there is a disaster of significant origin, all the electronics in the world will be of no use if they will not function. Solar flares can knock out power grids for huge areas. And they do influence and disrupt satellite (i.e. GPS type) signals. You're at the mercy of the electronic age and it can fail you. Not can... WILL! It's only a matter of when! Just ask the survivors on hurricane Katrina. No power, no lights, no phones, no cellular service, no food, nothing. Whether it's a hurricane, tornado, earthquake, tsunami, or blizzard, anything can make you totally lost if the electronics you rely on are not working. They become useless. IT ALL can come to a screeching halt!

To that end, we introduce a device that has been around for over a thousand years. The non-technical, no battery required, and totally reliable magnetic compass. And using one is very easy. In the simplest form, you note your starting point and direction of travel, knowing that to return you reverse those directions. It may not get you pin point accuracy to your car, but it will get you back to civilization! Correctly using a compass requires education, should incorporate the use of a good topical map and a good compass itself. But, even with out those extras, if I have a compass, and I get dropped into the middle of the woods somewhere, I will get out, knowing and staying on a specific direction of travel. It may not be easy and sure, I'll have to adjust at times, but I will find my way out. These are things I was taught in the Boy Scouts in the 1950's and again in the military in the late 1960's. I carry a GPS yes... but I never travel without a compass. I even have one mounted in my car! Knowing your direction of travel to where ever it is your are going is the key to returning!

At Milvettactical.com we encourage that everyone be prepared for the worst. Be prepared to defend yourself. Be prepared for that potential disaster. Be prepared to be able to get where you want to go. Prepare to use resources, knowledge and tools to help you manage a crisis. Prepare to survive.