Wiktionary
boxing the compass
vb. (present participle of box the compass English)
Usage examples of "boxing the compass".
All except Jim, who had published Boxing the Compass in the first place.
We'd been on all sorts of courses, just about boxing the compass day after day for almost five days, searching all the time.
The Surprise had by no means passed through the variables, and in the afternoon watch the breeze, which had been boxing the compass for some time, died away almost entirely.
Daring was 'boxing the compass', swinging idly in all directions under her pyramids of sails in the absence of all wind.