[BITList] Fwd: Sextants

[John Feltham]

From a correspondent…
 

That sextant belonging to the Master of the Carpathia had appeared recently on Antiques Road Show.  Shame the family decided to sell it.

My first encounter with sat nav was a Garmin in the ‘80s,   when we were still using Decca nav.,  albeit by 1983 not Decca made receivers.  When the owner of my ship, a Norwegian, said that the annual hire of one of Decca’s own Navigators was then (1983)  £2,000 p.a. whereas he could buy a non-Decca made receiver for the same price, smaller, easier to use, and just as good.  Of course, that eventually led to the end of Decca navigation.   
In the ‘80s   I was in the North Sea so the Decca was still a viable option.

I was still teaching apprentices (and engineers with an interest in astronomy) to use a sextant in the late ‘70s.

I always regretted selling my sextant when B.P. Shipping started suppling them to their ships because by then we had to fly aboard to join a ship,
and so I later jumped at a chance to buy a bulk standard Hezzanith when offered one by a friend.
I never did like the lightness of the later alloy sextants, much preferring the weight of the brass models.
I used my gt. uncle’s station master’s whistle for sights.

I stupidly turned down an octant in Dundee because in ignorance I thought it should have had a telescope.
It was for sale at £80 (1984) and compete apart from its box…big mistake.

I did buy one of those tiny barrel / pocket sextants, 2 1/4” diam.,  brass;  a reproduction, and surprisingly accurate.



an original 19th. c. model which is much more expensive.


> On 26 Apr 2016, at 14:34, John Feltham <wantok at me.com <mailto:wantok at me.com>> wrote:
> 
> 
> http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-36062539 <http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-wiltshire-36062539>
> 
> Sextants were still used when I went to sea in 1954. And I would assume for quite some time after that.
> 
> 
> ooroo
> 
>  


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