sextant found on gardner

[richie conroy]

did tighar ever find out were the sextant box was from, or who made it ,an if it was navy issued  ?

[Martin X. Moleski, SJ]

did tighar ever find out were the sextant box was from, or who made it ,an if it was navy issued  ?

I'm pretty sure that this article on the wiki answers all those questions.

[richie conroy]

thx martin

[Heath Smith]

One thing that I have always thought interesting is that a sextant box was found on the island with that skeleton but no sextant was located. That seems a bit odd doesn't it? I mean, if it were just a box and the sextant was lost when the became a castaway, it seems that the person would either use it to hold items like food or water or it might as well be burned if it served no purpose. Even if this was some castaway and not Amelia, it makes no sense to salvage and hold on to an empty box and do nothing with it. Perhaps it did have a purpose but I have not heard any mention of it when the skeleton was found.

Another possibility is that it actually did hold a sextant and some other person walked away with it attempting to find their way back to civilization. Assuming that it was Noonan that could have walked away with it, and say attempted to build a makeshift raft, could the sextant have been used effectively to sail to a reachable destination assuming that he had no maps? Could you realistically survive a journey long with enough food and water to sail East until you hit land? I suppose you would be dead either way and you might as well go for it. The only probably I see with that theory is that he did not carve something in to a tree or arrange stones and sea shells to spell their initials out to let people know for certain that they did survived.

Another problem with the survivor theory is why not take a box design to hold your sextant?

[Ric Gillespie]

The box, when examined in Fiji, was said to have been used "latterly merely as a receptacle."  At least one small element of the sextant was apparently present - "Only part discovered was thrown away by finder but was probably part of an inverting eyepiece."

This suggests to me that the sextant itself - heavy and of no use if you don't know how to use it - was discarded.  (Thus reinforcing the idea that FN never made it to the Seven Site.) The box and the part of an inverting eyepiece were the elements that had some utility to the castaway.

[John Ousterhout]

Do the coconut crabs try to pry open boxes that are about the size of coconuts?

[Chris Johnson]

Do the coconut crabs try to pry open boxes that are about the size of coconuts?

Arn't they known also as robber Crabs? Bet the sextants down a burrow  ;D

[Ric Gillespie]

Do the coconut crabs try to pry open boxes that are about the size of coconuts?

I don't know. I've never personally seen them try to pry anything open.

[Chris Johnson]

Ric says

This suggests to me that the sextant itself - heavy and of no use if you don't know how to use it - was discarded.  (Thus reinforcing the idea that FN never made it to the Seven Site.) The box and the part of an inverting eyepiece were the elements that had some utility to the castaway.

I've highlighted two parts as yes the sextant would be heavy so why carry it around and once you've got your 'navigational shot' then it is no use so why not just stash it away somewhere on the island so you can go back to it later if you need it?

The missing sextant (Freds Tool of the trade) seems to me make people assume that Fred didn't make it to the seven site.

[Ricker H Jones]

If there is food involved they would give it a good try.

[Ric Gillespie]

We're thinking of Coconut Crab Wrestling as a fund raising event.  Whadya think?

[Irvine John Donald]

Is that a real crab on that garbage bin????  If yes then put me down as a spectator with a seat high in the stands.

[John Ousterhout]

Wikipedia sez the Coconut crabs can live 60 years. The big ones are the old ones.

[Irvine John Donald]

It got to be old for a reason. I still wouldn't wrestle with it.

[Hector M Zapata]

I need a bigger grill......and a LOT of butter.