Boat compass from the ketch Maud

The Maud was a flat-bottomed ketch that carried coiled rope 22 km down the Merrin to Orwick, three or four trips a week, from 1905 to 1937. Her crew was Captain Henry Mayes, his brother and a boy.

On a river you steer by the banks, so the compass mostly came out in fog. Mayes repainted the card himself in the 1920s with what looks like house paint, which is why north is a slightly different red from the rest. The Maud was broken up in 1938. This and one oar are all that came home.