NavList:

redbearded guy is the journalist put in the crew to, doing 'embedded reporting'. he's supposed to look like he doesn't know what he's doing. the 'legendary' sextant scene only exists in the five part television series version, because no one ever gets it, except maybe you guys:

setup: they are totally off course after two weeks of very heavy seas and overcast skies. the kaleu (captain) shouts out is first in command and navigator for several minutes, scince they just ran into another german u-boot, which isn't supposed to happen, since they should be spread apart as evenly as possibly. once he's done ripping his first a second one, he actually dares to talk back: 'haven't seen a star in 14 days kaleu'. kaleu shuts up and you know he overstepped a line and the first knows he knows, without even looking at him. very unusual on a nazi u-boat that time, since that kind of subordination could have got him shot.

next scene: the sea is still super heavy and the sky is still almost entirely overcast... but there are holes between those clouds, moving very fast, so you can see a star once in a while, for two, or three seconds. first has the sextant, kaleu the watch and the first shoots three stars in under a minute... the one i understood the name of was aldebaran which is usually found with the help of either orion, and/or the pleiades. but the only thing he has a chance to see is aldebaran, for two seconds. he bellows the star's name and angle to kaleu, which bellows those and the time further down, where someone writes it down. the first in command shoots three, or even five stars, he obviously recognizes the fraction of a second they appear accurately within the two to three seconds they are visible... three, or five times in a row. every part of that is possible theoretically, but so absolutely not in reality, but if it were possible, that would be exactly, what it would look like...

it's my favourite scene in the entire 5h version, because it tells so fricking much about the kaleu and his first, as well as how much effort was put into the production!

that particular officer is trusted to be 'allowed' to talk back in that setup scene right before that one, the kaleu puts so much trust in him, because he is the best fricking navigator that could (actually not) possibly exist. even the angle of aldebaran is plausible for an autumn night somewhere on the atlantic. it also tells how much effort that actor (Bernd Tauber, born near the alps, certainly not a boat guy) put into it: he moves his body in his knees and hip, like he would have to, to keep it steady while the boat rocks back and forth from +30° to -30°, he follows one of the holes in the clouds and acts the moment it reveals a star, just 'knowin' which star it is, without seeing any other star, he adjusts the arm within a second, reads the dial within the next and is back on following the hole between the clouds another second later. the actor not only knows what he is doing, but also knows why it would be so amazing if someone was actually able to pull that off. in that scene he's entirely in charge, the captain reacts to him, taking time within the second of the sighting and they have to hurry that much since there are only very view holes, fast moving far in between within those clouds, only one of which is big enought to reveal any star long enought at all. they cut back and forth between him, his very limited view and the kaleu to make it look possible. it's one of those few movies, where just everything happens to match up.

it's a scene of perfect dynamic in cut, story telling and even the background music, because after two weeks of getting further and further off course, they now finally know where they are and the crushed spirits of everyone involved, finally are allowed to replenish up to optimism again. now they are confident to become 'useful' again, finally knowing where they actually are after two weeks of deterioration and the iconic hymn starts to get audible over those crushing waves again.

i am not boat guy either btw, but used to do amateur astronomy, and at least tried to use a sextant at some point, on land, perfectly knowing where i was supposed to be, ending up mounting it on a stative, still being off by a mile with my best approach. so at least that scene wasn't lost on me, like it was on pretty much everyone else (which is why they cut it from any other version). i also happened to be at the very love parade (berlin techno festival) in 1999, the biggest ever with 1.5 million other crazy people at the 10th anniversary of that party, when the first of the uncountable techno versions of that iconic sound track was played for probably the first time. boy do i love that movie!

i searched for that sextant scene on youtube, but couldn't find it. if someone does, please send me a mail.

also if someone is able to tell me a thing or two about certain aspects of sailing and navigating the north sea, to at least get an informed idea about the following conundrum: pytheas the greek in 350BC was shown either the outer hybrides, or maybe even iceland, supposedly without involving celestial navigation, by some barbars. experts back to differ for well over 2000 years by now, who those barbars where, which places exactly they showed pytheas, but everyone seems to agree about that one of the places had 22h days and sea ice and that those 'barbars' whoever they where, showed those places to the greek and not the other way round, while also insisting that those same barbars under no circumstances knew anything at all about celestial navigation, which seems quite odd to me!? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pytheas