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Joel,

A quote from the Plath company history tends to support Peter's view
although it is somewhat ambiguous:

"At the beginning of 1953 Johannes Boysen, together with the well known
American navigator, P V H Weems, founded in Washington the firm of Weems &
Plath, whose main purpose was to step up the sale of C Plath sextants in the
USA."

The history points out that this association only lasted 11 years when C
Plath pulled out, however it did not insist on a name change.

The history continued, " As the US navy instited that the instruments used
by it should be manufactured in the USA, C Plath granted the firm of Lowe
Inc in New York a manufacturing licence for the C Plath sextants. Up to this
day all Mark 111 sextants for the US Navy have been manufactured by this and
a successor firm under this licence."

These words were written in 1987 so according to the company's offical
history Mark 111 sextants were indeed Plath's made under licence in the USA.
Possibly David White was the successor firm to Lowe Inc that is referred to
in the history. What date did your company pitch for the business?

Regards

Kieran Kelly
Sydney

-----Original Message-----
From: Navigation Mailing List
[mailto:NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM]On Behalf Of Joel Jacobs
Sent: Sunday, 21 March 2004 8:34 AM
To: NAVIGATION-L@LISTSERV.WEBKAHUNA.COM
Subject: Re: C+P NAVY MK III


Peter,

I don't know where you got your information, but my company, Nautech
Maritime Corp of Chicago, Il,  bid on the Navy contract for the MK III, and
it went to David White of Milwaukee. They also had a subsidiary, survivor or
successor company called something like Scientific Instruments, Milwaukee,
WI which made the Mod 2.

You can read about this experience at:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2561519492&category=37971

I was away from sextants from 1978 until just recently, but I was of the
opinion that the W&H sextant was made by Cassens & Plath. I will not bet the
farm on that one, but I will on who made the USN MK III Mod 0 unless what
you say occurred while we were out of the country, 1978 - 1984, and during
the following years when I was not involved with sextants in any manner.

Joel Jacobs


----- Original Message -----
From: 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, March 20, 2004 4:07 PM
Subject: Re: C+P


> To add my two cents to Kieren and Robert's explaination of C. Plath's
> relationship to Cassens & Plath, there was a similar situation with Weems
&
> Plath of Washington, DC (later Annapolis, MD). After World War II, C.
Plath
> went through a very difficult rebuilding period. With the decline of
German
> shipping, they looked to gain a foothold in the US market. In 1953 they
> formed a partnership with P.V.H. Weems to sell C. Plath sextants and
> compasses, calling the venture Weems & Plath.
>
> Since the US Navy would not purchase foreign-made instruments, Lowe, Inc.,
> of New York was contracted to build sextants under license from C. Plath
and
> bearing the Weems & Plath name. The US Navy Mark III sextant was a
> Lowe-built Plath.
>
>  -- Peter

   

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