NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Celestial Navigation in the Movies
From: Christopher Willmes
Date: 2016 Dec 5, 17:09 -0500
From: Christopher Willmes
Date: 2016 Dec 5, 17:09 -0500
John Wayne had a number of nautical film roles, including: - the captain of a German freighter in WW II in the 1955 film, The Sea Chase; - a Swedish sailor onboard a British tramp steamer in the 1940 film, The Long Voyage Home; - merchant mariner Captain Tom Wilder in the 1955 film, Blood Alley; - USN Captain Rock Torrey in the 1965 WW II Pacific theatre film, In Harm's Way; - a WWII PT boat commander in the 1945 film, They Were Expendable; - a submariner in the 1951 film, Operation Pacific; - a bos'n (boatswain) in the 1936 film, Sea Spoilers; - Captain Ralls, the master of the merchant vessel Red Witch, in the 1948 movie, Wake Of The Red Witch; - merchant mariner Captain Jack Stuart in the 1942 film, Reap the Wild Wind; and - WW II USN veteran Mike Donovan in the 1963 film, Donovan's Reef. I've seen all but two of these films, but I don't recall in which film Wayne wields a sextant and reads the latitude and longitude directly from the instrument. I would hazard a guess that it was in either The Sea Chase or The Wake Of The Red Witch. Cheers, Chris Willmes
