Gyro Compas

A gyrocompass is essentially a gyroscope, a spinning wheel mounted on gimbals so that the wheel's axis is free to orient itself in any way. Suppose it is spun up to speed with its axis pointing in some direction other than the celestial pole. Because of the law of conservation of angular momentum, such a wheel will maintain its original orientation. Since the Earth rotates, it appears to a stationary observer on Earth that a gyroscope's axis is rotating once every 24 hours. Such a rotating gyroscope cannot be used for navigation. The crucial additional ingredient needed for a gyrocompass is some mechanism that results in applied torque whenever the compass's axis is not pointing north.

One method uses friction to apply the needed torque: the gyroscope in a gyrocompass is not completely free to reorient itself; if for instance a device connected to the axis is immersed in a viscous fluid, then that fluid will resist reorientation of the axis. This friction force caused by the fluid results in a torque acting on the axis, causing the axis to turn in a direction orthogonal to the torque (that is, to precess) towards the north celestial pole (approximately toward the North Star). Once the axis points toward the celestial pole, it will appear to be stationary and won't experience any more frictional forces. This is because true north is the only direction for which the gyroscope can remain on the surface of the earth and not be required to change. This is considered to be a point of minimum potential energy.

Another, more practical, method is to use weights to force the axis of the compass to remain horizontal with respect to the Earth's surface, but otherwise allow it to rotate freely within that plane. In this case, gravity will apply a torque forcing the compass's axis toward true north. Because the weights will confine the compass's axis to be horizontal with respect to the Earth's surface, the axis can never align with the Earth's axis (except on the Equator) and must realign itself as the Earth rotates. But with respect to the Earth's surface, the compass will appear to be stationary and pointing along the Earth's surface toward the true North Pole.

SAMIN (SAMUDRA INDONESIA)

PT Samudera Indonesia Tbk was established in 1964. The core business of the Company is to provide comprehensive range of integrated cargo transportation and logistics services. With its fully integrated and diverse transportation services, the Company is capable of meeting the needs of both domestic and international customers for a door to door or one stop service. Since 1999, the Company has been publicly listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange.

P.T Samudera Indonesia as the parent/holding company with subsidiaries: SSL, ARKOM, SISM, Foremost, SSS, Panurjwan, TSJ, PNP, MTCON, MKT, Silkargo, Samudera Perdana, MPC. The Company also acts as an agent for various global shipping companies, including Hapag-Lloyd AG, United Arab Shipping Company, Nippon Yusen Kaisha-Hinode, and Korean Marine Transportation Company.

Samudera Shipping Line Ltd ("Samudera") is one of PT Samudera Indonesia subsidiaries, was incorporated in Singapore in 1993 . The Company was converted into a public company on 2nd October 1997 when its shares got listed and quoted on SESDAQ. Following an approval from the Singapore Exchange, its shares have been transferred from SESDAQ to the Main Board, where Samudera's shares are now listed and quoted since July, 2000.

Samudera is a regional Container Shipping line serving the Middle East and the lndian Sub-continent in the west, South East Asia and Indo-China at the center and the Far East to the north. This extensive network of services is run from its headquarters in Singapore, with able support from its own offices in Dubai and Mumbai for the Middle East and the lndian Sub-continent operations, Bangkok, Klang and Jakarta for the South East Asia and Indo-China operations, and Shanghai for the Far East operations.