The Gyrocompass Remains a Powerful Navigation Aid

Anschütz has claimed a new benchmark in naval navigation with its SYNAPSIS WECDIS NX, a system with a powerful mix of navigational and tactical functions.

SYNAPSIS brings all navigational and tactical information together into one consistent picture so that navigators interact with a single, harmonised platform.

One of the key capabilities of SYNAPSIS WECDIS NX is its robust GNSS interference handling. This is something that Anschütz pioneered with the development of the gyrocompass by Hermann Anschütz-Kaempfe, born in 1872.

Anschütz-Kaempfe initially studied medicine before turning to art history. His doctoral thesis focused on Venetian painters of the 16th century — a far cry from maritime technology. Yet his life took a dramatic turn after meeting polar researcher Julius von Payer. Together, they ventured to the Arctic, where Anschütz conceived an audacious plan: to reach the Americas via the North Pole in a submarine.

This vision exposed a fundamental problem, as magnetic compasses fail near the poles and are useless in a submarine. Determined to solve this, Anschütz immersed himself in the physics of gyroscopic systems, inspired by Léon Foucault’s earlier work. By 1904, he tested his first ‘gyro course keeper’ with the German Navy on the Kiel Fjord.

In 1905, the company Anschütz & Co. GmbH was founded and later presented the first gyrocompass that could be used onboard a ship in 1908, starting the production in Kiel. In 1913, the Hapag Line passenger ship Imperator became the first commercial ship equipped with an Anschütz gyrocompass.

Despite lacking formal engineering training, Anschütz transformed theory into rugged reality, creating a device that could withstand the harsh conditions of seagoing vessels. His practical ingenuity laid the foundation for a technology that remains indispensable more than a century later.

Today, the Baltic Sea has become one of several hotspots for GNSS jamming and spoofing, with thousands of vessels reporting disruptions. Erratic positions, sudden jumps and even total signal loss threaten safety and efficiency.

Today’s gyrocompasses build on Anschütz’s original principles with refinements for modern challenges. Robust mechanical design, combined with intelligent filtering and alert systems, helps mitigate the effects of spoofing. Dual-compass configurations and heading management systems add redundancy and enable cross-checking, further reducing risk.

Practical experience has shown that when GNSS fails, the gyrocompass stands firm.