loxodromics

n. The art or method of sailing on the loxodromic or rhumb line. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Gr. &unr_; slanting, oblique + &unr_; a running, course; cf. F. loxodromique. ] Pertaining to sailing on rhumb lines; as, loxodromic tables. [ 1913 Webster ]

Loxodromic curve or
Loxodromic line (Geom.), a line on the surface of a sphere, which always makes an equal angle with every meridian; the rhumb line. It is the line on which a ship sails when her course is always in the direction of one and the same point of the compass. [ 1913 Webster ]