"[2]
The Marine Chronometer was the outcome of the crying want of the
sixteenth century for an instrument that should assist the
navigator to find his longitude on the pathless ocean. Spain was
then the principal naval power; she was the most potent monarchy
in Europe, and held half America under her sway. Philip III.
offered 100,000 crowns for any discovery by means of which the
longitude might be determined by a better method than by the log,
which was found very defective. Holland next became a great
naval power, and followed the example of Spain in offering 30,000
florins for a similar discovery. But though some efforts were
made, nothing practical was done, principally through the
defective state of astronomical instruments. England succeeded
Spain and Holland as a naval power; and when Charles II.
established the Greenwich Observatory, it was made a special
point that Flamsteed, the Astronomer-Royal, should direct his
best energies to the perfecting of a method for finding the
longitude by astronomical observations. But though Flamsteed,
together with Halley and Newton, made some progress, they were
prevented from obtaining ultimate success by the want of
efficient chronometers and the defective nature of astronomical
instruments.
Nothing was done until the reign of Queen Anne, when a petition
was presented to the Legislature on the 25th of May, 1714, by
"several captains of Her Majesty's ships, merchants in London,
and commanders of merchantmen, in behalf of themselves, and of
all others concerned in the navigation of Great Britain," setting
forth the importance of the accurate discovery of the longitude,
and the inconvenience and danger to which ships were subjected
from the want of some suitable method of discovering it.
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