NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: sextant use
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2002 Jun 14, 16:58 -0300
From: Trevor Kenchington
Date: 2002 Jun 14, 16:58 -0300
Ed Falk wrote: > Maybe we should buy up all those sextants before the home decorators get > them. > > Does Southwest Instrument Company have any kind of web site? I couldn't > find one. No answer to offer on that but I did chance to find "Robert E. White Instruments Inc." of Boston at www.robertwhite.com Besides selling assorted new navigational and meteorological instruments, they recondition and sell used sextants. That can't be good for the business of the few remaining manufacturers but it does keep some fine instruments in use. For those whose interest in non-electronic navigation extends beyond celestial, Robert White also offers taffrail logs (Walker Knotmaster) and his "Nantucket Sounder" -- a nice hand "lead", though moulded in bronze. The latter is calibrated in fathoms (of course!) but the leadline is marked only by overhand knots at fathom intervals. Are we so far from a time when every seaman knew from birth that seven fathoms was red wool bunting while eight was a "deep" with no mark on the line? Does anyone know of other sources of working taffrail logs (including the spare impellers and lines which are inevitably needed sooner or later)? Off this shore, navigating in fog can't always be avoided and I'd like to know my distance run without resorting to electronics. Trevor Kenchington -- Trevor J. Kenchington PhD Gadus@iStar.ca Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555 Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus