or Timekeeper so constructed as to endure the motion of a ship at sea, and having made a voyage to Lisbon and done sundry other things during a course of years, mostly under the direction of the Commissioners of Longitude, by way of preparatory experiments, I thought the Invention sufficiently perfect about the latter end of the year 1760, to go upon the ultimate trial, which I accordingly applied for. My Son, after being sent to Portsmouth with the third Timekeeper (the fourth or Watch being to be sent to him) was kept there five months, waiting for orders;[1] which having by returning to London at length obtained, he went to Jamaica in the Deptford Man of War, and returned in the Merlin Sloop of War, having fulfilled every instruction of the Commissioners. It remained to compute from the astronomical observations made at Portsmouth and Jamaica, whether the Watch had or had not kept the Longitude within the prescribed limits; and as my title to £20,000 was to be determined thereby, I thought it but reasonable that I should name some person to check the computations, which was refused.[2] The Commis-
- ↑ An outline of this part of the Transactions was given in the Work, unavoidably showing how strangely the great Lord Anson had fallen off from that consistency of character so much admired in his circumnavigation.
- ↑ This refusal, though of the utmost consequence, as all the subsequent proceedings may be said to hinge on it, will not be found on the minutes of the Board. The Mathematicians nominated were all strangers to the Candidate, who
