7 Feb 2014
Ebony wood sextant; with maker's name centrally and the angle scale (now warped), both inscribed on bone.
Ship's Sextant
This Ebony and Bone sextant was made by the firm of Spencer, Browning and Rust, sometime between 1784 and 1840. It is marked London, but the firm is known to have shipped sextants in component form to assemblers in Scotland and the United States. The case is lined with charts from the East Coast of England (Lowestoft to the River Humber). The practice of lining cases with out of date maps continues in the nautical and aviation worlds to this day, and indicates only that the case was probably lined somewhere in England.
The sextant belonged at some point to Capt. Merriman of the Brig ‘Shooting Star’, as this is handwritten inside the case. The ‘Shooting Star’ was not a naval vessel, so was probably a civilian cargo ship. An excerpt from the New York Times dated 27th January, 1867, reports the abandonment of the ‘Shooting Star’ on the 17th, and the safe landing at Newport, RI, of Capt. Allen and his crew by the Brig ‘Albatross’ who took them off. The ship was caught in a gale on the 12th, and obliged to cut away her masts. This was likely necessary due to a partial dismasting, after which the remainder would need to be cut away to avoid the loose parts holing the hull in the stormy seas. Unfortunately, removing the high masts makes a ship roll much more rapidly and with larger amplitude, so with the sea likely to have had significant waves for days afterwards, abandonment became the only option. This sextant, the chronometer, and the Ship’s log were probably the only items the Captain brought with him off the ship when it was abandoned. The ship’s hull may not have sunk immediately – some abandoned hulls were known to have drifted around the oceans for years, and led to many a ghostly tale!
So, how did this sextant end up on P.E.I.? It may have been assembled in the United States, or brought over by a British Captain. We can surmise that Capt. Merriman sold the sextant to the next Captain of the 'Shooting Star', either because he was retiring, or out of work afterwards, or trading up to a better (metal) sextant. Thus it remained with the ship and eventually came in the possession of Shooting Star’s last Captain. Captain Allen may have sold it in Newport, RI, or taken it to another ship. There are Allens on P.E.I., so it is also possible that he retired here.
Curiously, the provenance of this sextant was discovered on Jan 27th, 2014, exactly 147 years after it arrived in Newport, RI, and the author learned to use a sextant in Boston, Lincolnshire, which is just on the map used to line the case.
This Ebony and Bone sextant was made by the firm of Spencer, Browning and Rust, sometime between 1784 and 1840. It is marked London, but the firm is known to have shipped sextants in component form to assemblers in Scotland and the United States. The case is lined with charts from the East Coast of England (Lowestoft to the River Humber). The practice of lining cases with out of date maps continues in the nautical and aviation worlds to this day, and indicates only that the case was probably lined somewhere in England.
The sextant belonged at some point to Capt. Merriman of the Brig ‘Shooting Star’, as this is handwritten inside the case. The ‘Shooting Star’ was not a naval vessel, so was probably a civilian cargo ship. An excerpt from the New York Times dated 27th January, 1867, reports the abandonment of the ‘Shooting Star’ on the 17th, and the safe landing at Newport, RI, of Capt. Allen and his crew by the Brig ‘Albatross’ who took them off. The ship was caught in a gale on the 12th, and obliged to cut away her masts. This was likely necessary due to a partial dismasting, after which the remainder would need to be cut away to avoid the loose parts holing the hull in the stormy seas. Unfortunately, removing the high masts makes a ship roll much more rapidly and with larger amplitude, so with the sea likely to have had significant waves for days afterwards, abandonment became the only option. This sextant, the chronometer, and the Ship’s log were probably the only items the Captain brought with him off the ship when it was abandoned. The ship’s hull may not have sunk immediately – some abandoned hulls were known to have drifted around the oceans for years, and led to many a ghostly tale!
So, how did this sextant end up on P.E.I.? It may have been assembled in the United States, or brought over by a British Captain. We can surmise that Capt. Merriman sold the sextant to the next Captain of the 'Shooting Star', either because he was retiring, or out of work afterwards, or trading up to a better (metal) sextant. Thus it remained with the ship and eventually came in the possession of Shooting Star’s last Captain. Captain Allen may have sold it in Newport, RI, or taken it to another ship. There are Allens on P.E.I., so it is also possible that he retired here.
Curiously, the provenance of this sextant was discovered on Jan 27th, 2014, exactly 147 years after it arrived in Newport, RI, and the author learned to use a sextant in Boston, Lincolnshire, which is just on the map used to line the case.
