NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Captain Scott's sextant
From: Henry Klejdys
Date: 2023 Jan 3, 15:28 +0000
From: Henry Klejdys
Date: 2023 Jan 3, 15:28 +0000
Dear Frank,
thank you very much for your response to my short article regarding Robert Falcon Scott's sextant. I am not the owner, but have been engaged in the research of the item over the past year.
You are correct for questioning my description, I should have written - double frame, pillar sextant, but twin pillar sounds close .
As regards the quote from the living Falcon Scott, this was given to me verbally in an interview with him last year. I think the question you should be focusing on is his father - Sir Peter Scott, the son of Captain Scott and his wife Kathleen, who brought up Peter after his father died and his body remained in the Antarctic. I believe mothers still communicated with their sons in those days. They also made sure their husbands had the navigational instruments and clean underwear with them before they set off on their expeditionary duties. All this was passed on to her son Peter, who gained manhood and in turn would re-tell his fathers journey to the South Pole to his own son, Falcon. Thank God for Oral History, without it the world would be a dull place, and we would be without imagination and memories.
The superiority of the sextant that Captain Scott owned (Troughton and Simms: double frame, pillar, sextant) in terms of accuracy, compactness and durability was indisputable. It had proved itself on his first 'Discovery' expedition in brutal weather conditions. Why would he not take it? Amundsen took two antique sextants, he seemed to do all right.
The last half of the 19th century saw little change in navigational instruments in general and the sextant in particular. Since a good sextant could last 50 years, there was little incentive for improvement in its manufacture or design until after World War One, by the Japanese I believe.
Kind regards
Henry Klejdys
-----Original Message-----
From: Frank Reed <NoReply_FrankReed@fer3.com>
To: klejdys@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 2 Jan 2023 18:15
Subject: [NavList] Re: Captain Scott's sextant
From: Frank Reed <NoReply_FrankReed@fer3.com>
To: klejdys@aol.com
Sent: Mon, 2 Jan 2023 18:15
Subject: [NavList] Re: Captain Scott's sextant
Hello Henry.
Are you the owner of this instrument -- the friend that Richard Thompson mentioned earlier?
In your post, you mention again a "twin pillar...sextant". What do you mean by this? It's not a normal description of any sextant that I'm familiar with (but that doesn't mean that no one ever used that expression, of course). A "pillar sextant" is one consisting of two thin metal plates held together by short metal pins between the plates. The pins were once known as "pillars" (probably an architectural analogy since these created great strength in the frame) and so the sextants were known as "pillar sextants". In the modern world, this sounds odd and causes confusion so most museum curators (for example) now list these instruments as "double frame sextants". Either works. But "twin pillar"? I don't see it.
You wrote:
"and from the grandson of Scott himself - Falcon Scott, who confirmed, 'it is unthinkable that my grandfather went on the expedition to the South Pole without taking his own sextant'."
"and from the grandson of Scott himself - Falcon Scott, who confirmed, 'it is unthinkable that my grandfather went on the expedition to the South Pole without taking his own sextant'."
Falcon Scott, grandson of Scott of the Antarctic, was born in 1954. Can anyone confirm that? His opinion on the unthinkability of anything is just that -- his opinion. It's useful as an opinion, but it doesn't constitute evidence for the simple reason that he wasn't born for another four decades after his grandfather died. Descendants of famous people are regularly quoted as authorities in popular accounts of historical events. But their opinions are rarely useful for historical proof. That said, if they had the space on the expedition, and if weight was not an issue (seriously?!), then Capt. Scott may well have brought along his favorite antique pillar sextant. Or maybe not... The engraved name could have been added decades later easily. The sextant seems to be a good match for the photo, but it wasn't a unique design. They made many like it. Provenance of historical artifacts can be a devilishly tricky problem.
Frank Reed
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA
Clockwork Mapping / ReedNavigation.com
Conanicut Island USA
