a wooden case or box, which contains the compasses, log-frames, watch frames, and lights to show the compass at night. As this is called bittace in all the old sea-books, even by mariners, it appears evidently to be derived from the French term habitude (a small habitation), which is now used for the same purpose by the seamen of that nation. The binnacle (Plate XCV. fig. 4.) is furnished with three apartments, with sliding shutters; the two side ones, \(a, b\), have always a compass in each \(d\), to direct the ship's way; while the middle division, \(c\), has a lamp or candle with a pane of glass on either side to throw a light upon the compass in the night, whereby the man who steers may observe it in the darkest weather, as it stands immediately before the helm on the quarter-deck. There are always two binacles on the deck of a ship of war, one being designed for the man who steers, and the other for the person who superintends the steerage, whose office is called connuing.