Working the angles

The customs officer at Hobart airport eyed the little wooden box warily – like it contained five klios of cocaine or half a dozen hand grenades. “What did you say it is?” he drawled.

“It’s a sextant – for navigation,” I replied.

It was too big a decision to make on his own, so he summoned two workmates who pulled the foam padding from the box and x-rayed it, examined the box for false bottoms and ordered me to demonstrate how to use it.

Eventually they decided that my harmless old sextant posed no danger to Australian homeland security and waved me on. At first I thought their attitude was due to lack of education but then, maybe, the sextant is just hopelessly archaic and many people would have the same response. Like traditional boatbuilding skills, maybe traditional navigating and seamanship skills are also in danger of disappearing altogether.