{"id":40633,"date":"2016-05-02T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-02T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/faulty-compass-led-to-ships-misorientation\/"},"modified":"2016-05-02T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T19:01:54","slug":"faulty-compass-led-to-ships-misorientation","status":"publish","type":"sermon-illustrations","link":"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/faulty-compass-led-to-ships-misorientation\/","title":{"rendered":"Faulty Compass Led to Ships&#8217; Misorientation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In 1914, not long after the sinking of the <em class=\"citation\">Titanic<\/em>, Congress convened a hearing to discern what happened in another nautical tragedy. In January of that year, in thick fog off the Virginia coast, the steamship <em class=\"citation\">Monroe<\/em> was rammed by the merchant vessel <em class=\"citation\">Nantucket<\/em> and eventually sank. Forty-one sailors lost their lives in the frigid winter waters of the Atlantic. While it was Osmyn Berry, captain of the <em class=\"citation\">Nantucket<\/em> who was arraigned on charges, in the course of the trial Captain Edward Johnson was grilled on the stand for over five hours. During cross-examination it was learned, as the <em class=\"citation\">New York Times<\/em> reported, that Captain Johnson &quot;navigated the <em class=\"citation\">Monroe<\/em> with a steering compass that deviated as much as two degrees from the standard magnetic compass. He said the instrument was sufficiently true to run the ship, and that it was the custom of masters in the coastwise trade to use such compasses. His steering compass had never been adjusted in the one year he was master of the <em class=\"citation\">Monroe<\/em>.&quot;<\/p>\n\n<p>The faulty compass that seemed adequate for navigation eventually proved otherwise. This realization partly explains a heartrending picture recorded by the <em class=\"citation\">Times<\/em>: &quot;Later the two Captains met, clasped hands, and sobbed on each other&#39;s shoulders.&quot; The sobs of these two burly seamen are a moving reminder of the tragic consequences of misorientation. The reminder for us is this: if the heart is like a compass &hellip; then we need to (regularly) calibrate our hearts, tuning them to be directed to the Creator, our magnetic north.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"template":"","tax_ctp_audience":[],"tax_ctp_authors":[],"tax_ctp_categories":[165],"tax_ctp_format":[171],"tax_ctp_illustration_types":[411],"tax_ctp_multimedia":[],"tax_ctp_point_editor":[],"tax_publications":[140],"tax_ctp_tags":[3426,3559,3572,3653,3677,3746,3783,3802,4109,4133,4264,4394,4552,5042,5046,5226],"tax_ctp_topics":[],"class_list":["post-40633","sermon-illustrations","type-sermon-illustrations","status-publish","hentry","tax_publications-ct-pastors","tax_ctp_tags-apostasy","tax_ctp_tags-character","tax_ctp_tags-choice","tax_ctp_tags-compromise","tax_ctp_tags-consequences-of-sin","tax_ctp_tags-decision","tax_ctp_tags-direction","tax_ctp_tags-disobedience","tax_ctp_tags-guidance","tax_ctp_tags-heart","tax_ctp_tags-integrity","tax_ctp_tags-lostness","tax_ctp_tags-obedience","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-direction","tax_ctp_tags-spiritual-formation","tax_ctp_tags-values"],"acf":{"scripture_references":[{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null},{"first_verse":null,"add_second_verse":false,"second_verse":null}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Faulty Compass Led to Ships&#039; Misorientation - CT Pastors<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.christianitytoday.com\/pastors\/preaching\/sermon-illustrations\/faulty-compass-led-to-ships-misorientation\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Faulty Compass Led to Ships&#039; Misorientation - CT Pastors\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In 1914, not long after the sinking of the Titanic, Congress convened a hearing to discern what happened in another nautical tragedy. In January of that year, in thick fog off the Virginia coast, the steamship Monroe was rammed by the merchant vessel Nantucket and eventually sank. 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