 The globes provided navigators and students with methods for finding the place of the sun , latitude , course , distance , amplitudes , azimuths , time and declination . They proved such a boon to navigation that they came into widespread use on ships . In the dedication of his 1595 book The Seamans Secrets to the Lord High Admiral , Charles Howard , the 1st Earl of Nottingham , navigator John Davis spoke of " the mechanical practices drawn from the Arts of Mathematick , [ in which ] our Country doth yield men of principal excellency " , and he noted " Mr Emery Mullenenx for the exquisite making of Globes bodies " . 
