This was in July of 1952.
What did we do before there were stars?
Sometimes the North Atlantic can be a strange place. Shortly after we sailed to join with Mainbrace units, we were steaming independently. For three days, the sky was solid, and the Loran was picking up shadows from the far side of the moon. We had a DRT plot that was carried forward from buoy 2CB. But that was 72 hours ago. Captain Bruton came in to the chart house, to see how the Navigator, Commander Elmo Zumwalt was doing. There on the navigation work sheet, was a perfect 5 star, single point fix. The Captain was amazed. Zummie! How did you do that? Cdr. Zumwalt turned to him, and with a straight face, said, what do you think we did before we had stars? The Skipper just shook his head, turned and walked out to the bridge.Commander, what were you doing to get that fix? I asked. Skip, he replied, you know how the weather has been; I was just back navigating. If we were anywhere's near where the DRT plot says we are, then the stars at Navigation twilight would be on those bearings and elevations. George, Get yourself, and Mr. Crawford each a sextant. Skip you set yours for this elevation. George, you take this elevation, and note and bring up the other bearings and elevations. Come on, we're going star hunting.
Three sextants, one timer, three extra pairs of eyes, and a man to record went up to the 05 level and we searched the heavens for about an hour with no luck. Not a single star showed through where we hoped to be looking right at it. We continued steaming for another 24 hours, before we sailed out of the area and joined up with the Mainbrace forces. Not bad for a 4 day transit on a departure buoy fix The following day, both the captain and the navigator turned over their positions to their relief's but that's another story.
