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Re: HMS Bounty chronometer
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2004 May 19, 11:07 +0100
From: George Huxtable
Date: 2004 May 19, 11:07 +0100
I can supply a bit more information to Paul Hirose, who said- >George Huxtable wrote: >> >> of my surveys or drawings." Later he adds "To Mr Samuel I am indebted for >> securing my journals and commission, with some material ship papers. ... He >> attempted to save the time-keeper, and a box with my surveys, drawings, and > >Regarding that "time-keeper," I have a library book, "Revolution in >Time" by David S. Landes. It has a photo of Harrison's #1 and #4 >chronometers, and Larcum Kendall's #1 and #2. All four are shown >together, apparently in a museum display. > >According to the photo caption, Kendall #2 "was Captain William >Bligh's chronometer on the Bounty and was seized in the mutiny of >1789. It did not find its way back to England until 1843." > >Regrettably, I see nothing in the text about this chronometer's story. ========== This refers to Kendall's second watch, K2. K1 was the famous Kendall watch which was taken by Cook to test on his second circumnavigation. K3 went with Bayly on "Discovery", consort to Cook's "Resolution", on Cook's third voyage. On that voyage, K1 went on Resolution with Cook once again, but broke down shortly after Cook's death. But it's K2 we are considering now, which didn't go with Cook's expeditions at all. Even so, "The Clocks and Watches of Captain James Cook, 1769-1969" by Derek Howse and Beresford Hutchinson (which consists of reprints of four issues in 1969 from "Antiquarian Horology", in pamphlet form) offers the following information about the eventful caeeer of K2- Appendix 1. Summary of history of K2. 1770. Ordered by the Board of Longitude. 1772. Trials. Kendall paid ?200. 1773. With Captain Phipps in the "Racehorse" to Spitzbergen. 1774-7. With Captain Vanderput in the "Asia" to Senegambia. 1774-7. With Rear Admiral Digby, C-in-C., N. America. 1785. With Captain Thompson in the "Grampus" to Africa. 1787. With Captain Bligh in the "Bounty" to the Pacific. 1789. With the "Bounty" mutineers on Pitcairn Island. 1808. Bought by Captain Folger, an American whaler captain. It was stolen from him shortly after. ????. Appeared in Concepcion, Chile. Bought by a Spanish muleteer named Castillo for three doubloons. 1840. Bought from Alexander Caldcleugh of Valparaiso by Captain Thomas Herbert, RN, for 50 guineas. 1843? Presented to the Royal United Service Institution, London. 1963. Transferred to the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, on the closing of the RUSI museum. What a story that chronometer could tell! George Huxtable ================================================================ contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at 01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK. ================================================================