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Subject: Re: sextant use
From: Trevor J. Kenchington (Gadus@XXX.XXX)
Date: Fri Jun 14 2002 - 15:58:17 EDT
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@XXX.XXX Gadus Associates, Office(902) 889-9250 R.R.#1, Musquodoboit Harbour, Fax (902) 889-9251 Nova Scotia B0J 2L0, CANADA Home (902) 889-3555Science Serving the Fisheries http://home.istar.ca/~gadus
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