NavList:

The silent film "Down to the Sea in Ships" helped launch the career of future "It girl" Clara Bow. The film-makers borrowed the whaleship Charles W. Morgan, now the centerpiece of the collection at Mystic Seaport Museum, then near the end of its career. They hired a crew, went on a small whaling voyage, and filmed it. There are some nice shots of the Morgan sailing under light winds. Also, we see a couple of whaleboats sailing, attached below. Most artwork of these whaleboats, both historical and modern, prefer to show the boats being rowed. The ships, like the Morgan, were motherships. The hunt was done from the little whaleboats... They sailed, stealthily, to sneak up on the whales.

One scene in this movie, shot on a stage, shows young Clara Bow fighting with her boyfriend (a case of mistaken identity). The actors are barely visible in the screen capture below, but, hey look!, there's an old octant hanging on the cabin wall. The intended date-setting of the film is not clear, but let's say latter half of the 19th century. Probably an octant like that would have been counted as obsolete by then (navigation would have been done with a contemporary metal sextant), so I suppose the wall is the right place for it. There are few hints of navigation in the film... 

Frank Reed

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