Sextant

This is my Vernier Sextant which I used throughout my sea going career. I also have a more modern French made Micrometer Sextant

This is my own original sextant dated October 1905. It is a Bell Pattern by Wilson. Gillie, Bruce & Sons Ltd of Cardiff, with a National Physical Laboratory certificate "Class A" shewing that the sextant had Zero errors at every point. I have continued to carry out checks on it and to this day still has no errors, shewing what a beautiful piece of workmanship it is. The rear view shews a beautifully coloured ivory insert in the handle. This secures it in it's carrying box. There is an ivory insert in the box too describing it as a "Bell Pattern Sextant"

"Theory & Practice of Navigation & Nautical Astronomy" by W.G.Tate Examiner of Masters & Mates at Newcastle upon Tyne - a First Edition dated 1900. It was priced at a massive (for 1900) six shillings.			The sextant box is built of lovely mahogany with great patination, and shews the result of having protected its contents for nearly 100 years of which 80 years were at sea. The key (see it in picture 2 above) still locks the box and the closure fittings work very smoothly still.	A WW2 United States Navy, Rude Star Identifier which enables stars to be identified anywhere in the World, which I bought in 1952 and have used continually ever since.

Some of my Navigation work books. Click Here is how it is done, on a voyage between Calcutta, India and Fremantle, Western Australia	Another example on a voyage between Mombasa, Kenya, and Mina al Amahdi in Kuwait.	These pages shew voyage records with the Date, the day's steaming time (S.T.), Nautical Miles - bigger than land miles - covered that day bearing in mind that because the ship is continually moving between time zones 23 and 25 hour days can occur. Total Miles (T.M.) covered on that passage to date, and Average Speed (A.Sp) over the passage. Also where we were going and any margin notes. Note on the first of the three pictures above the ship's Dead Reckoning position is just a three miles North of the Equator.