Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptBones
Hello again RR...
My Luders yawl sailing days were in the mid-60s. We had pretty much the same optical navigation instruments as any WWII USN ship...older (brass...heavy) sextants, most with 3X or 4X magnification, some Leupold Stevens, some Weems and even one or two really wonderful Plath instruments (I think they might have had 6X magnification...much harder to use in lower light conditions). I've never used a plastic, or even an aluminum one, so can't say anything about comparative results.
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Those aren't instruments, they are exquisite works of art!
Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptBones
In the Guppy days (Clamagore [SS 343/Guppy III] and Grampus [SS 523/Guppy II]) we certainly had some more advanced Navigation equipment than the WWII boats, but we still used both "standard" sextants and bubble sextants...no, we didn't have any "periscope" sextants...those are (or were, back then) only used in aircraft. BTW, IIRC there were 9 or 10 Guppy IIIs.
The marine bubble sextants were very handy if you didn't have a good horizon, but you also didn't get the best results...they were very tough to hold steady.  I seem to recall that ours were pretty much knock-offs of German WWII instruments used by the Luftwaffe and the Kriegsmarine.
I'm certainly a mere mortal too, but I suppose it was/is something of a highly developed skill...at least as far as taking good sightings. Fortunately, the trig was almost completely avoidable and the work was mostly a "plug and chug" problem using sight reduction worksheets and tables in the Nautical Almanac (H.O. 214 and H.O. 229). What you needed to be good at was keeping a good DR track and advancing your AP for each separate body you were going to shoot and LOP you wanted to plot.
But, I remember many many of my contemporaries and not a few of my seniors, who just couldn't "get it" right. Then again, I also recall that I never met a Chief or First Class Quartermaster (QMC/QM 1) that couldn't get it right every time, as well as quite a few senior Signalmen and some Boatswains Mates that learned those skills too.
Well, have we beat this subject to death yet? Not exactly hi-jacking the thread but probably twisting it around quite a bit.  |
Absolutely fascinating and although being a sextant jockey is an invaluable and valued skill on board, to landlubbers they aren't considered very much. And so game manufacturers leave their indispensible skills out of the game.
Irrelevant question that bears on the accuracy of the game. What color are clouds at night with a dark environment? Black. The only way you see clouds is stars aren't where they belong and it's just black there.