BRITISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC 'TERRA NOVA' EXPEDITION, 1910-1913 A silver open-face key-wind deck ...

BRITISH NATIONAL ANTARCTIC 'TERRA NOVA' EXPEDITION, 1910-1913 A silver open-face key-wind deck watch by Brockbank, Atkins & Moore, used on Scott's Terra Nova voyage Date: London Hallmark for 1888 Movement: Gilt full plate English lever, cut and compensated bi-metallic balance, diamond end stone, Broad Arrow, No.261 Dial: White, black Roman numeral hour markers, black outer minute track, subsidiary seconds at 6, blued steel spade hands, No.261 Case: Polished consular, No.261 Signed: Dial & movement, case stamped H.G Size: 58mm Accompaniments: Later fitted display box, key Footnotes: ONE OF THE POCKET CHRONOMETERS ASSIGNED TO SCOTT'S ILL-FATED TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION 1910-1913, lent to him by the Admiralty. Marine chronometers were a fundamental tool for sea navigation. They were safeguarded from the elements and stored below decks in a fixed position within a gimbal-suspended box. Deck watches such as this one, on the other hand, were portable and used for navigational observations on deck, and could also be used on land. For example, some were used on sledge journeys and were carried in a 'small wash-leather pocket sewn on the inner vest just above the belt line' (F. Debenham, Report on the maps and surveys British (Terra Nova) Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913, 1923, p.8). Two deck watches can also be seen hanging behind Scott in Ponting's famous photograph of Scott writing his diary in the hut in October 1911 (illustration 74 in The Great White South). Debenham mentions that six watches were taken on the Southern Journey with Scott, Evans, Wilson, Bowers and Oates - one of which was recovered with the bodies (Debenham, pp.23, 27). The present deck watch with serial number 261 was first recorded at Greenwich when it was entered for trial in October 1890 (W. Christie, Rates of Deck Watches on Trial Purchase by the Board of Admiralty at the Royal Observatory Greenwich from 1890 October to 1891 February 14, p.2). The watch was then acquired for Admiralty service in February 1891. The manufacturer is variously referred to in the records as 'Brockbank & Atkins' and 'Brockbank, Atkins & Moore'; this watch appears as 'Brockbank & Atkins 261'. The records of the Royal Observatory Greenwich (see supporting image, © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London) show the movements of the watch in and out of the Chronometer Department, once it was acquired by the Admiralty, outlining its adventurous career. In December 1891 it was lent to HMS Amphion, which was serving in the Mediterranean at the time, and in 1899 it sailed with the HMS Comus in the Pacific. It was then lent to the 'Antarctic Expedition' on 30 May 1910, as stated in the ledger, and it was returned from the Cape of Good Hope on 1 February 1913. The Terra Nova set sail with this deck watch on board from Cardiff on 15 June 1910, under the command of Lieutenant Edward Evans, and reached South Africa in August 1910. Having then headed south for Antarctica, the Terra Nova did not stop into Cape Town again, and after the end of the fatal expedition she sailed back to England via New Zealand and Cape Horn. According to the ledger, the present watch was returned to the Cape of Good Hope in 1913, suggesting that it was either left there after the Terra Nova docked in 1910, or perhaps returned to South Africa via another boat after the end of the Expedition. In the following years the watch was used in 1917 on the Armed Merchant Cruiser HMS Morea, and in 1919 on the 'S' Class Destroyer HMS Success. It was then sold at auction on 18 October 1919. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing