NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
From: David Pike
Date: 2020 Mar 21, 02:57 -0700
I was impressed by the crispness of the photograph and researched it further. It is from Capt Scott’s expedition of 1910-13 and was taken by Herbert G Ponting on 9th Feb 1911 and available here:
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/1/120117-scott-south-pole-anniversary-hundred-years-science/ Slide 9.
The reason it’s so sharp is because it was probably taken using Ponting’s huge glass plate camera. Glass plates such as these are well known for recording fine historical detail. The subject of the photograph is Lt Henry Rennick.
Henry Edward de Parny Rennick was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy serving in HMS Dryad when he joined the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913 (leader Robert Falcon Scott). Unable to participate in the shore party for medical reasons, he was made responsible for the Hydrographical survey work and deep-sea sounding. He was awarded the Polar Medal.
After the expedition, he continued to serve with the Royal Navy, but was drowned when HMS Hogue was sunk by a German submarine on 22 September 1914.
https://archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/search/archives/dcd6a522-9448-3cb4-9e05-ece23d6dafa6
More about his character and sketches of his boots, which were by Jaeger can be found here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/lt-henry-edward-20874167
More about the Jaeger style of boot can be found here:
https://docplayer.net/53065913-Fiona-wills-personal-project-gateway-canterbury-antarctic-studies-february-f-wills-g-c-a-s-february-2008.html Page 43.
Several members of the expedition can be seen wearing similar boots here:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2087811/Captain-Scott-s-pictures-harsh-Antarctic-revealed.html Third photo down, some more worn than others.
Dr Edward Wilson of the Polar Party seems to have favoured the boots https://breakingtheice.canterburymuseum.com/themes/the-northern-party-a-second-team-at-cape-adare 12th photo down and https://riverwriterblog.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/captain-scott-and-me/ 13th photo down. Is it just possible he was wearing them at the poll, 11th photo down?
So overall, not much more information revealed about the sextant, but an awful lot revealed about boots. I did find an artificially coloured version of the photograph where one of the stand counterbalance weights becomes more obvious under the folded back index shades. DaveP
