NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: Brad Morris
Date: 2013 Jun 18, 13:45 -0400
The peep sight appears to be present but the corresponding horizon mirror (which should be opposite) is missing.
Today's featured article on (English-language) Wikipedia is the article on "midshipman" and it includes an image of an engraving showing a young midshipman holding a quadrant (octant). The instrument is not mentioned, but I thought it would be of interest since it's a rare day to find a traditional navigational instrument in a spot that will be seen by many millions of people.
During the past weekend's navigation class at Mystic Seaport, one participant asked me why the heck they put the handle on the right on a sextant. I explained about the "organic" development of this technology and also pointed out that the original instruments didn't have handles at all. We can see a hint of that in this engraving. The midshipman is holding his quadrant by the index mirror! ...Perhaps a bit of artistic license. :) Actually, if you look closely it's really a rather poor rendering of the instrument. How many flaws can you find?
-FER
----------------------------------------------------------------
NavList message boards and member settings: www.fer3.com/NavList
Members may optionally receive posts by email.
To cancel email delivery, send a message to NoMail[at]fer3.com
----------------------------------------------------------------
Attached File:
