Sextant box found on Nikumaroro

When Gallagher did a thorough search of the area near where the skull was found, he discovered an empty sextant box with two numbers on it--3500 and 1452. The British saw no significance in the numbers; in 2009, TIGHAR found an intriguing pattern of dual numbers (maker's number and U.S. Naval Observatory numbers assigned when the instruments were calibrated there).

Notes from the bones file

Telegram No. 71 from Gallagher to Jack Barley, Resident Commissioner, Ocean Island, Sept. 23, 1940: Sextant box has two numbers on it 3500 ( stencilled ) and 1542– sextant being old fashioned and probably painted over with black enamel.[1]

Typed note in file 4439-40 (23) from Vaskess to Sir Harry, April 11, 1941: The sextant box with its contents is now with me. Perhaps Captain Nasmyth might be willing to examine this with a view to ascertaining the origin?

Letter – circled 14. Vaskess to Commander G.B. Nasmyth, F.R. Met. Soc., Suva. June 6, 1941.

Dear Commander Nasmyth,

With reference to our telephone conversation relative to the identification of a sextant and box which I mentioned as having been found and which you were so good as to say you would examine, I regret to state that on further examination it was discovered that no sextant had actually been found but only a box thought to have contained a sextant.

I am forwarding the box to you with this letter and His Excellency would be grateful if you would examine it with a view to determining its use and origin if possible.

Sincerely,

Secretary to the High Commission

Typed note to file 4439-40 in red ink (39). Sir Harry to Vaskess. August 8, 1941.: Sec., H.C.,; I return the sextant box which I had retrieved from Captain Nasmyth in order to show it to Mr. Gatty who has expert knowledge of such matters. Mr. Gatty thinks that the box is an English one of some age and judges that it was used latterly merely as a receptacle. He does not consider that it could in any circumstance have been a sextant box used in modern trans-Pacific aviation. 2. What was Captain Nasmyth's opinion of it?

Note to file 4439-40 (40). MacDonald to Vaskess (passed along to Sir Harry): The Secretary; Mnt (39), para. 2, I have spoken to Captain Nasmyth who replied as follows:- "As the sextant box has no distinguishing marks, & since it was discovered that no sextant had been found, all I have been able to find out is that the make of the box – that is – the dovetailing of the corners – makes it appear to be of French origin."

Tofiga's recollection

Tofiga said he had seen a sextant box on Vaskess' credenza. Tofiga was not taken into the confidences of the WPHC officers who examined the materials sent to Fiji from Gardner Island, but it seems very likely that the box he saw was the one Gallagher sent to Suva.

What might 3500 and 1542 mean?

The sextant box found on Nikumaroro and shipped to Fiji in 1941 had two numbers on it: 3500 and 1542.[2] TIGHAR has recently found a plausible explanation for those two numbers. The first is likely to be the maker's number; the second a number inscribed on the instrument when it was calibrated at the U.S. Naval Observatory.

Fred Noonan loaned a naval sextant to a student of his prior to the fatal flight. That sextant box is extant and also has two numbers handwritten on the bottom of it: 3547 and 173. But the sextant inside the box is a Ludolph with a different serial number.

The Pensacola Sextant Box (3547 and 173)

The National Museum of Naval Aviation has a sextant box with "dovetailed corners, the number 116 handwritten on the front, and the numbers 3547 and 173 handwritten on the bottom." The box contains "a sextant manufactured by W. Ludolph of Bremerhaven, Germany, in 1919, with the serial number XIX 1090, painted black."^[1] The box was donated by W. A. Cluthe, a retired Pan Am captain, who said that he had borrowed the Ludolph sextant from Fred Noonan.^[2] The box is listed in the table below as Brandis (theoretical) because the box contains modifications that may have been made to accommodate a Brandis bubble sextant.

Sextant Box Numbers: Suggestive Patterns

This chart is organized in the order of the Navy number given to the instruments by the Naval Observatory when they were sent there for calibration. Two entries are theoretical; the rest are actual pairs of numbers obtained from various sources. Two of the boxes in TIGHAR's possession have Naval Observatory numbers stamped on the box along with Brandis maker's numbers stenciled on the box.

Click on the sort symbol next to or under the headings to sort on the values in that column.

Maker	Maker No.	Navy No.	Inspection date	Comments	Bubble	NO# on box
W&S (stamped into box and on plate) Warner & Swasey	69	34		Flying Fish Trading Co.	?
Brandis (theoretical)	3547	173		Pensacola	?
K&E	18446	405		Smithsonian	yes
K&E (in W&S box)	4940	415	1936-01-29	Flying Fish Trading Co.	no
K&E	5418	575	1918-04-16	Mystic Seaport	no
Brandis	3227	845		Mariner's Museum	no
Buff & Buff	11778	1065	1918-05-12	eBay	no
B&B	11949	1144		eBay	no
Brandis (theoretical)	3500	1542		Niku	?	maybe
K&E	37548	1555	1919-10-24	Mariner's Museum	no
Brandis	3987	1584	1938-11-30	TIGHAR	no	yes
Brandis (sextant only)	3511	1585		TIGHAR (sextant only)	no
Brandis (box only) large box	3527	1599	1933-05-04	TIGHAR (box only)	yes
Brandis (no box)	4180	2859		eBay
Brandis (box is for 4234)	4279	2531	1941-07-23	Flying Fish Trading Co.	no
Brandis	4297	1880	1939-09-18	TIGHAR	no	yes
Brandis	4946	2785		TIGHAR	no
Brandis	5375	4125	ebay	yes
Brandis	5620	2939		Smithsonian	no
Brandis	5292	2975	1919-03-26	Russ Dickey	yes
Brandis	5296	2977	1919-03-16	Smithsonian	yes
Brandis	5109	4067		eBay	no
Brandis	4762	4334		eBay	?
Brandis	3826	4603		eBay	no	Brass plaque on box: "248 US NAvy 101009"
Brandis	5760	4705		Smithsonian	no
Brandis (no box)	3336	4773		eBay (no box)	no
David White (1943)	11949	5508		eBay	no
David White (1943)	17649	17649-43	1946-07-19	eBay	no
David White (1941)		5273		USNO Historical Committee Inv
No Navy numbers or not known
Brandis (plate on box containing 4762)	1844	?		eBay
Brandis (stencil on box)	4234	?
Brandis	3193	none		Smithsonian	yes