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Sextant

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Sextant

A sextant was a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measured the angular distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant was to measure the angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celestial navigation. On ships at sea, a sextant was used to calculate the estimation of a position line on a navigational chart, measure angles between objects for a position on a chart, or get a sight (or measure) of the angle between the Sun at noon, the stars at night, and the horizon.

History

A sextant was a handheld navigation device that measured the angle between two objects—particularly the sun and the horizon—and was considered helpful when following your nose didn't work. Like a sextant, a quadrant measured angles, but was best used on nighttime objects like stars.[1]

During the Age of Piracy, sextants were used for maps and navigational charts by sailors aboard sailing ships at sea, including pirate ships and naval ships. On ships like the Black Pearl, though Captain Jack Sparrow often let his special compass guide him, he also navigated just as other seamen did. Near coasts, he relied on charts (sea map). Far from land, he used a sextant to measure the sun's height at noon. From that he could calculate how far he had sailed north or south.[2][3]

By 1751,[4] a sextant was lying on Captain Toms' table when the Monarch was chasing the Ruddy Rose near the Devil's Triangle. Hector Barbossa also had a sextant in front of him when he was trying to plot the Black Pearl's course in their search for the Trident of Poseidon.[5]

Behind the scenes

"A map maker's sextant calculates the angle between a star and the horizon. So even if they are worlds apart, they are forever entwined - the stars and the horizon existing as lovers."
―Carina Smyth[src] (2013 screenplay)

While unseen, sextants were first mentioned in the 2006-2007 reference books Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide and The Complete Visual Guide.[2][3] Sextants make their first appearance as one of the Odds and Ends the players could collect in Pirates of the Caribbean Online.[6]

In Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio's first screenplay draft for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, when Captain Barbossa talked with Elizabeth Swann about the cursed treasure of Cortés aboard the Black Pearl, he opened his Captain's chest which contained a Mayan codex, charts, some gold, and a sextant.[7]

In Jeff Nathanson's early screenplay draft for Dead Men Tell No Tales in 2013, Carina Smyth took a sextant from Mr. Swift's chart house.[8] By the final version of the film in 2017, Carina takes a chronometer from Swift's chart house, and Hector Barbossa would use a sextant aboard the Black Pearl.[5]

Appearances

Sources

External links

Notes and references

  1. ↑ The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Visual Guide, p. 26
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Complete Visual Guide, p. 28
  4. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales: Movie Graphic Novel
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
  6. ↑ Pirates of the Caribbean Online
  7. ↑ Wordplayer.com: PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio
  8. ↑ Dead Men Tell No Tales script by Jeff Nathanson, second draft, 5/6/2013