WEEMS & PLATH COMPANY STORY
In May of 1919, eight years before Lindbergh’s famous solo ight, three
small planes set out from Naval Air Station Rockaway, NY headed for
Plymouth, England in an attempt to make the rst trans-Atlantic ight.
Only one of them made it. Twenty-ve hundred feet below on board a
station tracking ship, a young navigator, Lt. Cdr. Philip Van Horn Weems,
U.S. Navy, gazed up and thought there must be a safer and simpler way than
using a small armada of ships as beacons for the ight.
For centuries, man had relied on the heavens, on the circling planets and the
constant horizon to guide him in his travels. An accurate clock, compass,
sextant and charts were the necessary tools for plotting a course, but these
required time for computations and a place to spread out and study the
charts. e timeworn system of celestial navigation was ill suited to the
cockpit, but the airplane was here to stay. Lt. Cdr. Weems, a brilliant,
inventive and determined young man knew as he tracked that rst ight that
navigation was his destiny, and he went on to revolutionize the eld with his
ideas, writings and inventions.
e challenge he undertook was complex and involved the invention of new
methods and new tools. It required a horizon system independent of the
sea horizon that was often not visible from the cockpit of a plane. Weems
worked for years to develop a new kind of sextant and to nd someone to
manufacture it. When an accurate timepiece was needed, Weems invented
the Second Setting Watch with its inner rotating dial. He produced the
famous Weems Plotter, the more precise and easier to use plotting tool,
which is still one of our most popular plotters.
All his life, Weems continued to improve the instruments and broaden the
applications of his methods until they came to include radio astronomy,
polar exploration and even space navigation. He published numerous
articles and taught navigation at the Naval Academy in the 1920’s. He went on to
establish his own school in Annapolis to teach e Weems System of Navigation.
Charles Lindbergh studied with Weems before attempting his trans-Atlantic
ight. Admiral Byrd, a classmate of Weems at the Naval Academy, came to
Weems for instruction before setting out for the North Pole, as did many others.
A century earlier, Carl Plath’s company in Hamburg, Germany - C. Plath,
had been manufacturing the nest commercial sextants and magnetic
compasses available. C. Plath developed the rst gyrocompass installed on
a commercial vessel in 1913. Weems’ school for navigation had become
the purveyor of Weems’ instruments. It was a natural development for
Weems’ company to become the North American source for C. Plath’s ne
instruments; hence the alliance of two distinguished names - Weems and
Plath. e exceptional workmanship that both Philip Van Horn Weems and
Carl Plath required in developing the manufacturing of precision navigation
tools remains at the heart of all our products.
Weems & Plath is still located in the Chesapeake Bay town of Annapolis
where it began so many years ago. We are committed to supplying theworld
with the nest nautical products available while maintaining the high standards
of service that have distinguished Weems & Plath from its inception. 1
