It was not affected by the roughest weather, or
by the working of the ship through the rolling waves of the Bay
of Biscay. It was brought back, with Harrison, in the Orford
man-of-war, when its great utility was proved in a remarkable
manner, although, from the voyage being nearly on a meridian, the
risk of losing the longitude was comparatively small. Yet the
following was the certificate of the captain of the ship, dated
the 24th June, 1737: "When we made the land, the said land,
according to my reckoning (and others), ought to have been the
Start; but, before we knew what land it was, John Harrison
declared to me and the rest of the ship's company that, according
to his observations with his machine, it ought to be the
Lizard--the which, indeed, it was found to be, his observation
showing the ship to be more west than my reckoning, above one
degree and twenty-six miles,"--that is, nearly ninety miles out
of its course!
Six days later--that is, on the 30th June--the Board of Longitude
met, when Harrison was present, and produced the chronometer with
which he had made the voyage to Lisbon and back. The minute
states: "Mr. John Harrison produced a new invented machine, in
the nature of clockwork, whereby he proposes to keep time at sea
with more exactness than by any other instrument or method
hitherto contrived, in order to the discovery of the longitude at
sea; and proposes to make another machine of smaller dimensions
within the space of two years, whereby he will endeavour to
correct some defects which he hath found in that already
prepared, so as to render the same more perfect; which machine,
when completed, he is desirous of having tried in one of His
Majesty's ships that shall be bound to the West Indies; but at
the same time represented that he should not be able, by reason
of his necessitous circumstances, to go on and finish his said
machine without assistance, and requested that he may be
furnished with the sum of 500L.
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