Chronometer

SHORT DESCRIPTION: One day marine chronometer, No. 671, made or retailed by Edward Baker. LABEL COPY: [Gallery Crawl, 2016] The Most Travelled Object in the Collection This chronometer by Edward Baker is one of the most heavily documented and travelled objects in the Museum’s collection. Entering service with the Royal Navy in 1823, the chronometer served for the next 86 years. During its career it served on more than 16 different vessels on stations all over the world. Following its retirement in 1909 it probably entered the merchant service and was most likely used through both World Wars. NOTES: Baker, while a watchmaker, was apparently not a full fledged maker of chronometers and many of the chronometers attributed to him appear to have a strong links indicating they are partly the work of Thomas Earnshaw and Thomas Earnshaw Junior. Finishing work, and possibly complete chronometers, were provided to Baker by John Frodsham (a former business partner). [Jonathan Betts, 2002] BOX/MOUNTING: Plain, three tier, mahogany box, 15.3cms high, 17.0cms wide and 15.5cms deep, with inlaid, brass, shaped lozenge escutcheon on front, and with a circular ivory plaque on front of upper half engraved: ONE DAY / Baker / 671 the center of the disc having a turned sink where the British governments broad arrow, the symbol of government property, has been removed after sale from the Royal Navy. The box has standard fittings, with brass drop handles to sides and lacquered brass gimbals of standard layout except the winding key, which is positioned at the rear left of the box in a wooden corner shelf. The rising ratchet winding key is stamped: 2459 on both sides of the winged handle. The bezel is of narrow, ¼ round-section with a high domed, convex glass without site ring, the brass bowl with a revolving shutter for the winding square. The lower half and the upper half of the box have neat narrow scratched moulding at the junctions. The lid has butt hinges and the PROVENANCE, ACQUISITION & NOTES: Baker 671: A life in Royal Navy service The Astronomer Royals records and the Royal Observatorys ledgers of issues and receipts of chronometers to the Navy, record much of the working life of this chronometer. On 25 November 1823, the Astronomer Royal John Pond wrote informing the Commissioners at the Admiralty that two new chronometers by J.R.Arnold had both proved to be poor timekeepers on their arrival at Portsmouth, where they were urgently needed. Pond immediately provided two replacements, one being Baker No.671 which he says he …was obliged to purchase on the occasion… from Edward Baker. Baker escorted both down to Portsmouth by carriage, being paid six guineas for his time and the carriage, the price for No.671 itself being eighty guineas. The chronometer was then issued to HMS TRINCULO (a 23 year old sloop of 389 tons), Capt. James R. Booth, on 30 October 1832. Trinculo was stationed on the coast of Africa for three years, during which time Booth and his crew …captured several slavers and performed many valuable services against the Caffres…. At an unknown date it was then passed on to HMS HARRIER (a sloop of 389 tons built in 1809) Commander Spencer L.H.Vassal, stationed in the East Indies …where he was actively employed, particularly in the suppression of piracy in the straights of Malacca. From Harrier, it was returned to Greenwich on 7 November 1836. It appears that at this stage it was issued to HMS BEAGLE, the 235 ton surveying sloop, built in 1820, which had just returned from its epic six year odyssey with Charles Darwin and Captain Robert Fitzroy. The chronometer must have proved in need of attention as within a few days it had been sent to the makers, returning to the Observatory on 21 November. Once again it was sent back to Baker, presumably still proving troublesome, and returned to Greenwich on 20 March 1837. On May 27 1837 it was finally issued to HMS BEAGLE, now commanded by John C.Wickham, who had served as First Lieutenant with Fitroy and Darwin on the Beagles previous voyage. It returned to Greenwich for five days in June, probably for rating, finally leaving on the Beagle on June 8. This time, Beagle was employed in surveying the coast of Australia and Bass Straight, the chronometer no doubt indispensible in determining longitudes. It was returned to Greenwich via Portsmouth on January 17, 1842. [See in TMMP library DU101 .S8 Rare Discoveries in Australia : with an account of the coasts and rivers explored and surveyed during the voyage of H.M.S. Beagle in the years 1837-38-39-40-41-42- 43 ; also, a narrative of Between April 1850 and October 1851 the chronometer was loaned to the Retired Navy Captain and celebrated arctic explorer Sir John Ross, for purpose unknown [SEE NOTE THAT FOLLOWS], after which it was again overhauled by Baker. The chronometer returned, via Portsmouth, in November 1865, to go to Frodsham again, then staying at Greenwich until it was sent to Devonport in November 1866. It was back at Greenwich again in October 1868 on its way to Frodsham for another overhaul, and in October 1869 it was issued to HMS THISTLE (465 ton Gun Vessel built the previous year) for the China station. No less than nine years later in May 1878, the chronometer returned via Deptford dockyard, and was naturally sent straight to G.E. Frodsham for overhaul. August 1879 saw it issued to HMS AUDACIOUS (3,774 ton battleship built in 1870) where it served as a guardship on the Humber, the ship then being refitted as Flagship on the China Station. The chronometer returned to Greenwich and on to Frodsham in the Spring of 1881 where it underwent repairs on two separate occasions, only being ready for service again in May 1882. In September that year it was sent to Devonport, and probably back out to China, returning four years later, in October 1886, from HMS VICTOR EMANUEL, a 3,087 second rate which had been serving as a receiving ship at Hong Kong.