AN 8IN. RADIUS VERNIER SEXTANT BY WILLIAM DOLLOND, LONDON, CIRCA 1860, OWNED BY WALTER GOODSALL, NAVIGATION OFFICER ABOARD THE S.S. GREAT EASTERN CIRCA 1865

the arc signed Dollond London and inscribed Silver above '70' with inset scale divided to 145°, ebonised brass T-frame, vernier with magnifier on horizontal tangent screw adjustment and glass light diffuser, braced index arm, mirrors and seven shades on oxidised frame section, wooden handle and three pin feet, contained within fitted baize-lined keystone box of issue with inset owner's plate inscribed Walter Goodsall, accessories including four sighting tubes and filter -- 11in. (28cm.) wide

Provenance: Walter Goodsall to Captain Inch via auction.

Walter Goodsall, Master Mariner (1848-c.1900) went to sea as an apprentice on the Rajah of Cochin in 1863 and, in 1867, joined the Bombay Shipping Company as a Second Mate. His submarine telegraph career began when he was made Third Officer on the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company's cable laying ship Kangaroo in 1871, laying a cable from Singapore to Hong Kong, and as Second officer on that company's cable laying ship Vanessa he participated in the laying of the duplicate Placentia-St.Pierre-Sydney cable between 1872-73. Late in 1873 he was Third Navigating Officer aboard the Great Eastern, working on the cable from Valentia-Newfoundland. He went on to command other cable ships, including the Chiltern when it was deployed in the Red Sea between 1883-84. His papers are divided between Greenwich and the Public Records Office, Kew.