Not that old 
— but an old AB years back told me he knew when mates were flying out to join a ship with him because they had their sextant boxes in their laps up in business class. I remarked at the time (like a wise ass) that it was amusing they’d bring their own with them and a much older mate with a masters license told me that at the time it was a requirement that deck officers brought their own. If you arrived without one you were not allowed to sign on. Believe he was a 1975 or 1976 grad from one of the state schools and this story was from the mid to late 1980s.