The following was posted on MARHST-L in November 1999, and is reproduced here by permission of the author.
This matter came up on another list, one catering to fans of the Aubrey/Mathurin novels of Patrick O'Brian. Just out of interest we pass it along, since so far as I can recall, it has never been mentioned in this forum. Intuitively one would have thought there was a standard way of doing this, but when it came to quarter-points, the Royal Navy and the British Merchant Service boxed the compass in slightly different fashions. The sectors involved were:
NNE to NE by N
SSE to SE by S
NNW to NW by N
SSW to SW by S
N 1/4 E
N 1/2 E
N 3/4 E
N by E
N by E 1/4 E
N by E 1/2 E
N by E 3/4 E
NNE
NE by N 3/4 N*
NE by N 1/2 N*
NE by N 1/4 N*
NE by N
NE 3/4 N
NE 1/2 N
NE 1/4 N
NE
N 1/4 E
N 1/2 E
N 3/4 E
N by E
N by E 1/4 E
N by E 1/2 E
N by E 3/4 E
NNE
NNE 1/4 E*
NNE 1/2 E*
NNE 3/4 E*
NE by N
NE 3/4 N
NE 1/2 N
NE 1/4 N
NE
As to American practice, judging by A M Knight Modern Seamanship, (1903) page 81, they followed the RN on this point. Also see Mariner's Mirror Volume 55 (1969) 353-4.
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