Salute!
Problem with the thousand year old compasses was they were not stabilized like we started to get in the 1920 and thirties. I do not unnerstan the offshore war stories, as the ones in my boats and others worked great, but unless stabilized, the ring floated about left and right and such... basic whiskey compass.
I only had one gyro compass failure in 4,000 hours, and had to use the whiskey compass. After violating some sensitive areas north of Nellis I caved in and asked for a gyro out procedure to reach my destination in California... maybe 30 minutes away. You know, "turn left, stop turn". "turn right, stop turn".
The biggie today is we have plenty of nav programs already in our watches and iPhones. With good algorithms and Kalman filters plus newer ones, you can calibrate your watch with position updates, so can correct for drift.
I would not bet my future on GPS or LORAN. I like the new sensors and nav programs that will still work when many navaids are toast.
Gums sends...