In 1854 a bearing plate was invented by Matthew Curling Friend and William Browning to facilitate the taking of bearings where the compass was inconveniently situated for observation.

Friend was born at Ramsgate on 21 January 1792 and entered the Royal Navy as a First Class Volunteer at the age of 14½. Though continuously employed in ships, which carried him to Africa, the West and East Indies and to China, he does not seem to have caught the eye of his superiors for he did not obtain his lieutenant's commission until February 1815. He subsequently served in the Bucephalus, 32, one of the ships which escorted Napoleon Bonaparte to his exile at St. Helena. While on board the Bellerophon in Plymouth Sound, waiting for the great powers to decide his fate, the fallen emperor used to exhibit himself daily at the gangway and the populace came out in boats and thronged round to see him. On the day that he was transferred to the Northumberland for his yoyage there was an even greater press of boats than usual and one was capsized, throwing its occupants into the water.