It MEANS 8 degrees, 4 minutes North Latitude. The terminology is somewhat archaic, and dates back to the days of sailing ships. It had been customary to Express location in degrees of Latitude (north or south of the equator (0 degrees)) and Longitude, since this had been used since the refinement of the Compass. With Britain becoming the primary sea power in the 16th Century, a Prime Meridian was added (0 degrees Longitude), which was determined by a MARKER at the British Naval Observatory in Greenwich, England. A Compass has 360 degrees, So the Equator, and the Prime Meridian, which passes through Greenwich, as well as the True North and South Poles, became the beginning markers for determining where you were on the Earth, anywhere. Later, with the development of more accurate timekeeping, first, more accurate sundials, and then clocks, minutes and seconds were added to Latitude, and Longitude, to determine location: 8 degrees, 15′ 23″ N, and 35 degrees, 22′ 55″ W, meant that the spot on the map was 8 degrees, 15 minutes, and 23 seconds (about 572.2 miles) north of the Equator, and 35 degrees, 22 minutes, 55 seconds (2453.0 miles) west of the Prime Meridian. Latitude was easy to determine, by the Sun's Location in the sky, and how far Polaris, the brightest star in the “little dipper” CONSTELLATION, was above the horizon, at night, but determining your exact Longitude, especially on the Ocean, with no reference points, required an accurate method of telling time. There were many shipwrecks, involving ships “off course", so the British Government offered a substantial monetary prize to anyone who came up with an accurate timepiece, that would keep its accuracy at sea. Someone came up with such a clock, which was named a Chronometer. The 360 degrees were divided into 24 parts, 15 degrees for each hour, with each degree being “worth" about four minutes; however EACH degree was divided into 60 minutes, and each minute, into 60 seconds. With decimalization, the location I gave earlier would be 8.2564 degrees N, and 35.3819 degrees W.; in the North Atlantic, about halfway between Guyana, and Sierra Leone.

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