NAVIGATION INSTRUMENTS AND MAPS
This
section is meant to emphasize the evolution of the nautical
instruments and cartography throughout time. Together with
the antique French charts of the Napoleonic age, there are
other exemplars from England, the old Austrio-Hungarian empire
and Italy, as well as some prototypes of French pilot's books
(portolanos) of the end of the XVIII century and few
Italian ones of the XIX century.
The instruments
occupy a varied collection of samples: from the Handley's
quadrant to the many different makes of sextant, and also
marine chronometers, octants, standard (steering) (mariner's)
compasses (a secco), of which the most notable is that of
"Narcissus", the famous ship immortalized by Conrad, and
also other azimuthal devices, such as, among the most remarkable,
the Borda's Circle.
Other instruments that may
attract people's attention, like the pocket sextant of the
Commander and explorer Giacomo Bove, are: a mechanical tide
gauge, a sounding line/plummet/bathometer/echo sounder of
the "Magnaghi" type, old log chip/log ship, etc.
Between
the last acquisitions you can admire the "normal" compass
and the automatic pilot of the transatlantic Stockolm,
that collided with the Andrea Doria.
