C. Plath WWII KRIEGSMARINE MICROMETER SEXTANT

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C. Plath WWII KRIEGSMARINE MICROMETER SEXTANT

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Sold Date: 07/31/2007
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Fine Art

QUALITY C. PLATH

WWII KRIEGSMARINE CLASSIC!

This is a fine example of an early wartime (1942 - 1944) C. Plath ALUMINIUM FRAME Classic sextant. It comes with a 4 x 40 scope

A WWII KRIEGSMARINE LIGHT-WEIGHT MICROMETER SEXTANT signed 'C. Plath , Hamburg ', with German eagle and swastika insignia.

BACKGROUND: The sextant was originally developed in the mid-1700's as a navigational aid for sailors by utilizing the tool and a celestial body to gauge their positioning. Although other navigational aids and techniques had been developed by WWII the sextant was still an essential navigation tool as part of a ships basic navigation aids, as it remains today.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Finely tooled, light weight, alloy construction drum sextant with bakelite and glass fittings features a skeletonized base frame with four support legs to bottom edge. The roughly triangular shaped frame has a semi-rounded, outside edge, with impressed, white degree markings from -5 degrees to +125 degrees, representing 130 degrees of the graduated arc of a circle. The top of the frame features a fixed, horizon mirror, a movable, index mirror, a telescope and two sets of adjustable, light muting lenses, one with three lenses and the other with four. The frame also has an adjustable, central, index, arm, to the top, representing the radius of a circle, with the index mirror at the point of the triangular shaped frame. The index arm extends out to the semi-circular graduated arc edge with a pressure locking clip and an opened view port to see the degree markings. The central index arm and, as a result, the index mirror, adjust to the correct position as required. The operator holds the sextant vertically while viewing through the telescope to place the horizon on the horizon mirror. Then the adjustable index arm and index mirror are moved to a position until the navigational aid, (sun or star), is reflected in the index mirror and in turn reflected on to the horizon in the horizon mirror. This determines the altitude of the navigational aid, (sun or star), on the graduated arc. This altitude is compared to degrees of latitude until a match is made and signifies the exact latitude of the operator.

All the components are intact and still function and the telescope optics are still very crisp and clear. The sextant arc retains over 90% of its original black and coppery brown finish while the telescope retains all of its rough textured, black finish. The sextant is well marked with the impressed manufacturer's logo, name and location, "C. Plath Hamburg ", the manufacturer's serial number, "20546", an eagle and swastika over, "M", indicating Kriegsmarine issue and the Kriegsmarine issue numeral, "5605".

The sextant comes housed in a new hand-made hardwood case, roughly, 7" tall, 12 1/2" square. The original case was replaced due to it's poor condition, although all original hardware and attachments were retained for use with new case. The case has a fold back top lid with the original aluminum hinge. The case also retains the original natural aluminum carrying handle and closures. A new keyed lock has been installed for security. The natural wood interior has lathed and carved securing panel to the bottom center a small, accessory compartment. Also included are two small, tooled alloy wrenches, an Allen type wrench and an extra, circular, horizon mirror lens.

This sextant was purchased by my father sometime in the 1960's from a retired fisherman in Suriname , South America . At that time, it was in perfect working condition and was used by my father for many years. Over the years, because of oxidation, its aluminum frame corroded and required repainting. The current condition of the painted sufacese is 95%, although t is some minor pitting of the various aluminum parts due to past corrosion, as can be seen in the various photos as tiny white specs. In the early 1980's it was professionally dismantled and given a complete overhaul and all mirrors were replaced with newly resilvered ones. The sextant has been i...