How do you interpret nautical headings?

-For example: "heading one-eight-zero"



How would you translate this into directions if you were navigating a vessel?Numerical headings are just degrees on a compass. There are 360 degrees, 0 is North, 180 is South, 90 East and 270 West. The convention is to say "zero" , but it would be ok to say "one hundred and eighty", but not in the Navy and not on my bridge. When the helmsman is given a new heading (or any order for that matter), it's also traditional to repeat the order exactly so that there is no misunderstanding. The captain says "Steer one-eight-zero"; the helmsman says "one-eight-zero aye" and then steers the course. When the vessel comes around to the ordered course (and it can take quite a while), the helmsman says: "on course one-eight-zero".



It's also important to know that compass headings are not the same as directions. The compass is always a little off because of magnetic interference, errors in the mechanism and the fact that the magnetic North pole is not ever exactly as the geographic North Pole. (It wanders around continously). Today with GPS, it's important to know if the heading is "magnetic" or "absolute". On a chart one one write a little 'm' if the recorded course heading is magnetic. For practical purposes, one usually uses the compass and is talking about magnetic headings. The GPS on board, can be set to display magnetic or absolute headings.
A ships compass is just the like measuring angles so a full circle is 360 degrees. The only bearing where you don't use the angle is due north because the angle could be 0 or 360 degrees so the command is to head 'north'. You also always give three numbers, so east is 090 (zero, nine, zero) degrees, south is 180 (one, eight, zero) degrees and west is 270 (two, seven, zero) degrees.





Hope this is clear.
You would go to/turn to 180 on the compass which happens to be South. It does not matter which way it is, its an order whether you are told steer 180 or 135 or 74 degrees you look at the compass and turn the nearest way to that course
Heading is the direction you are traveling in. "heading one-eight-zero" means you are heading directly south. It is all geared to the compass.



North = 0 degrees

East = 90 degrees

South = 180 degrees

west = 270 degrees
Well.. you have to know how to READ A COMPASS. There are 360 degees in a circls and with 0 or 360 degrees as DUE NORTH.. 180 degrees would be DUE SOUTH.. 45 degrees would be DUE EAST and 270 degrees would be DUE WEST.