NavList:

Richard Thompson you wrote:  Hi. I have been researching as best I could, into Captain Scott's sextant, used on his expedition to the South Pole. I have photos of the one my friend has. His father worked in Portsmouth in the second world war, and his son thinks this is where/when he got given the sextant. This forum looks to be an amazing place of history and knowledge. Is it possible someone can take a look at the photos and give an experts opinion on them? There is one photo I found from National Geogrpahic showing the sextant on that mission. 


Richard

Examining the navigational content of Polar expeditions is fascinating stuff, as I'm sure your finding.  If that sextant inscribed R.F. Scott went on Scott’s Terra Nova expedition to the South Pole, I’m fairly certain it wasn’t taken on the final thrust to the Pole.  Firstly, if it had been, when found in or near Scott’s tent, it would have been treated like the Crown Jewels.  Secondly, I believe Scott and Bowers used a theodolite close to the Pole, not a sextant*.  That is not to say that the sextant you show wasn’t used during the scientific work carried out other than the thrust to the Pole, or on an earlier Scott expedition. The sextant and artificial horizon being used in the photograph you supply might have been used as part of the overall aims of the expedition, probably early on; the chap’s boots are new.  The chap in the photograph is neither Scott who was older nor Bowers who had a rather prominent nose.  DaveP

      *  http://www.southpolestation.com/trivia/igy1/hinks1944southpolepaper.pdf        page 165.