The Island Map

The Conundrum with Compass Bearings

This is another lengthy one. With a more detailed compass rose for The Island, we can more thoroughly analyze the various compass bearings that have been mentioned.

Desmond tells the survivors that he followed a course of 270, due west, and ended up back at The Island. This seems to indicate two things. First, only specific bearings can be used to safely leave and return to the Island. Second, using an “unsafe” bearing will cause a traveller to end up on the other side of The Island, so that it appears that they are following the same bearing, yet ultimately return to The Island.

Ben tells Michael that if he follows a bearing of 325 degrees he will find rescue. Michael and Walt successfully escape The Island by following this bearing.

This brings up an interesting point. Upon escaping the electromagnetic effects of The Island, Michael’s compass would begin to read differently. By following an “Island” bearing of 325, he would suddenly find himself on a real-world bearing of 302 when he was far enough from The Island. So we can assume one of two things: either Michael had to make a course correction to maintain the bearing of 325, or, it simply didn’t matter anymore once he escaped The Island’s electromagnetic field, and he could follow any bearing he wanted.

But 325 apparently isn’t the only safe bearing. Daniel Faraday instructs various people traveling from the freighter Kahana to use a bearing of 305 degrees to safely reach The Island. However, he also tells people on The Island to follow the same bearing of 305 to reach the freighter.

First we have to make an assumption: the Kahana must be close enough to The Island so that its compasses are also displaying “Island” bearings. Otherwise, a course-correction would be required to reach the freighter. Faraday never mentions anything about this.

It’s interesting that Daniel uses the same bearing to arrive and depart from The Island. If you were going to follow the same course that you used to arrive, then the return bearing would be 125 degrees. Departing on a bearing of 305 would take you in the opposite direction from the Kahana. However, we have already established that following certain bearings can make you appear on the other side of The Island, so this bearing is not completely illogical within the rules of the LOST universe.

It does bring up one more interesting point. If a bearing of 305 takes you to the other side of The Island, this would seem to indicate that, just like 270, it is not a safe bearing to leave The Island, but rather to safely return to the freighter without suffering “side effects.”

Perhaps if the Kahana crew had successfully completed their mission, they were planning to leave using the safe bearing of 325.