A Very Old Sextant
Craig D. Smith, FC Flotilla 08-07, Birmingham

A few days prior to our August Flotilla meeting I got a phone call from one of our long time flotilla members, Mrs. Carolyn Gunn. Mrs. Gunn is a twenty seven year member of the Auxiliary, and an octogenarian as well. She is a past Division 1 SO-SR, when she lived in Gulf Breeze Florida. The purpose of her call was to ask me if she could bring an old sextant she owned to the meeting. I quickly agreed and asked her to tell us at the meeting something about it's history and how she came to own it.

On the evening of the meeting Mrs. Gunn arrived with the sextant in a hinged wooden box. She opened it and immediately one could tell this was a very old, well preserved brass (and perhaps some silver) precision instrument in very good condition. Also inside the box were alternate eyepieces, filters, and other mysterious objects. No instruction manual though! But Mrs. Gunn did bring along a small old "text book" on celestial navigation and sextant usage.

Mrs. Gunn behind her sextant and surrounded by members of Flotilla 87

Historically, sextants were developed by astronomers for mariners for the purpose of measuring angular altitudes of stars, planets, the sun, and the moon. Based on those measurements (and accurate time), navigators could determine latitude and longitude with remarkable accuracy. Tycho Brahe and Issac Newton were instrumental in developing the sextant in the basic form we know today. It has been a symbol of technical navigation for 300 years.

Mrs. Gunn told us the sextant was one of two that were given to her husband (now deceased), Captain Eugene M. Gunn, by a friend. Capt. Gunn was a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy graduate, and rose to the rank of Captain with Grace Steamship Lines, sailing the seas between North and South America and Europe. Capt. Gunn was Flotilla Commander of Flotilla 17 in Gulf Breeze back in 1983, the same year he received the prestigious "Commodore Cook Individual Merit Award For Outstanding Auxiliarist of Division 1".

The friend had told the Gunns the sextants had belonged to his seafaring grandfather. Obviously they were old. But how old? The only clues to their age were in the wooden box. Inside the one box were three labels. One was "A Certificate of Examination" from The Observatory Works, Crayford, London, S.E. This was Sextant No. 6557 of 7" radius, examined by one Johnson Blowey, of Plymouth, divided on silver and reading 10" has been approved for the determination of latitudes, local times, and azimuths, with a maximum error of 20" or arc. The telescopes are satisfactory, and the powers are for the inverting 10 1/2 & 6 and for the erect 3. A date on this certificate was Aug. 15, 98. Suggesting the year 1898. And a superintendent's name was printed as G.W. Heath, M.I. Mec. E., F.R.G.S. This G.W. Heath we believe (from Google) to be George Wilson Heath, of Heath and Company of Crayford, maker of sextants and holder of a British patent dated 1909 for certain improvements of the sextant. We found a record of his being nominated for membership in the Royal Astronomical Society in 1888.

The other labels cited BLISS Nautical Instruments, Compass Adjusters, 84 Pearl Street, New York, and E.M. Casa Rocha, Fundada EM 1898, Armazem e Officinas de Instrumentos de Engenharia, Nautica e Optica. E.M. Rocha & Comp., Rua Da ASSEMBLEA, 56 Teleph. 2928 – Central. The Bliss Company manufactured nautical instruments until the late 1950's or 60's in New York. The E.M. Rocha label appears to be in Portuguese and could be Brazilian.

Mrs. Gunn said her husband tried writing to the Observatory Works in London to get more information concerning the sextants. The letter was returned by the London Post Office saying the observatory no longer existed.

The sextant represents a fascinating peek into maritime history and technology. And it resides right here in Birmingham. Mrs. Gunn said this sextant will remain with her family, as a remembrance of her husband and his love of the sea and navigation. Flotilla 87 thanks Mrs. Gunn for sharing this wonderful piece of history.