Actually I was paying very close attention, and the compass / magnetic poles was simply an offshoot of the original issue. Geez you people.
Also, I hate to burst your bubble, but there's a lot more to how a compass works with the Earth's "poles" than you seem to realize. You can't just have a single North Pole and call it good (we'll use north pole for this discussion). A magnetic field does not exist without having both N and S poles for one thing, beyond that, the Earth's magnetic field is *not* perfect. Therfore when navigating with a compass, if all you had was a single point from which to navigate from, you would have to redefine all the navigational information handed down over the ages.
Such as "Take this heading along this reading" - it wouldn't work the way you're implying. Just stop and think about it for a minute. Not to mention the problems you would have with natural ferrous deposits and even man-made magnetic interferences along your way, would be doubly amplified by having only one pole.
The needle on your compass would be ineffectual on nearly 1/4 of the Earth if not more! See what I mean?
Here is a youtube video on how a complicated Marine compass is made. It will give you an idea of what the counter 'forces' are involved in allowing a compass to work in the first place.