The sextant has an ebony frame and limb with a black-lacquered brass index arm and fittings. It also has a wooden handle and an inlaid ivory plate on the crossbar. The tangent screw and clamping screw are positioned on the back of the index arm. The sextant has four shades, three red and one green, and three horizon shades, two red and one green. Index-glass adjustment is made according to Gabriel Wright’s patent, by which the mount can be rotated round its pivot by screws for parallel adjustment. Horizon-glass adjustment is made by a screw and a thumbscrew.

Attached to the sextant is a threaded telescope bracket with perpendicular adjustment made by a rising-piece and a milled knob. The telescope is 171 mm in length with an inverted image and four cross wires. An extra drawtube is 47 mm with an erect image and a red swivelling shaded eyepiece. The sight-tube is 67 mm in length with a rotating shaded eyepiece with four shades, one clear, two red, and one green. One foot of the frame is broken and several unidentified parts are missing. The sextant is contained in a polished mahogany keystone box, with a trade label in the lid for Wilson and Gillie, New Quay, North Shields.

The instrument has an inlaid ivory scale from -3° to 136° by 20 arcminutes, measuring to 118°. The sextant has an ivory vernier measuring to 30 arcminutes, with zero at the right.

Gabriel Wright patented the index-glass adjustment (no. 1229 of 1779).