NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2014 May 23, 10:40 -0700
Attached, please find the inspection certificate associated with Frank Worsley's sextant. Yes, it was actually the property of Hudson, but Worsley used it in the heroic navigation.
Please do not reproduce this image. It took 4 months of negotiation to get permission to publish it here. That permission came with the limitation of publishing ONLY HERE
Aside from the description of the scopes and the zero-zero arc, there are two striking details to be observed. The first is the inspection date August 1914. We know that the Endurance expedition set off in early August. The second is which "authority" performed the inspection: "The Hezzanith Observatory Works" under the direction of GW Heath. The sextant is a Heath Hezzanith type. In other words, the manufacturer was also the inspector!
Perhaps sextants came from the Heath works with a certificate which was removed once the NPL or Kew Observatory performed the inspection. Hudson may not have had time to have it inspected by an independent authority.
Perhaps Hudson wanted it inspected just before sailing in August of 1914 and realized that an inspection by Heath was better than no inspection at all.
In any event, it remains with the sextant to this day. I thought that NavList might find it interesting
Brad
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