Weems & Plath: Legacy of the Grand Old Man of Navigation  

Weems & Plath: Legacy of the Grand Old Man of Navigation

In today's economy, flawless business savvy is required to keep new companies afloat for the all-important first two years, and those reaching their tenth year are recognized as having pulled off quite an achievement. But then, what about a company that has weathered 75 years without a major shift in direction or the need for massive diversification? Well, that's how it's been for Weems & Plath, America's premier manufacturer and importer of navigational instruments and wheelhouse supplies.

With the C. Plath name so often taking center stage when the word "Plath" enters a conversation, many mariners are unaware that Weems & Plath has no less an intriguing history, or that C. Plath is not even the parent company!

Weems: The Man

The story of Weems & Plath starts on American soil with its founder, Philip Van Horn Weems, and not in Germany as many suppose.

Philip Weems was born in 1889 and grew up on a small farm in Tennessee. He was forced to feel the weight of adult responsibilities at an early age, when his widowed mother passed away, leaving him and his siblings to look after themselves.

In 1908, Weems entered the U.S. Naval Academy and graduated in 1912. It was at the Academy that he first became interested in astronomy and celestial navigation. Both would be life-long interests.

In May of 1919, Lt. Commander Weems was assigned to one of the many station tracking ships strewn across the North Atlantic to aid three small planes in their attempt to make the first trans-Atlantic flight. Thinking of all the time, energy, and money being expended on positioning and maintaining this flotilla, Weems felt there had to be a better way, and the experience sealed his fate as one who would forever change the heart and soul of celestial navigation.

As a man driven by the desire to advance the technology and methodology associated with navigation, Weems recognized the need for new types of navigational instruments, and went about to purchase, modify, or design them from scratch. One such device was the bubble sextant. Proven practical by Portuguese Admiral, Gago Coutinho, in 1921, aviators could use these instruments without having to see the horizon. This was important because poor visibility often made viewing the horizon difficult to impossible.

Weems invented the "second setting watch," a timepiece with a face that could be turned precisely above the second hand to ensure synchronization with the ship's chronometer, and the now famous Weems plotter, which combined a protractor, straight edge, and parallel rule in one device.