L5494-001

Kendall's marine timekeeper K2 Long Caption: The timekeeper was commissioned by the Board of Longitude as a simplified version of H4/K1, and was completed in 1772. It was issued to Captain Constantine Phipps in 1773 for his voyage in 'Racehorse' to the North Pole (on which Horatio Nelson took part as a young midshipman) and was then passed on for use on the North American Station by Captain George Vandeput (1774-77) and then by Rear Admiral Robert Digby (1781-84). For the following two years (1785-86) K2 was with Captain Edward Thompson on 'Grampus' for a voyage to Africa, and was then issued to William Bligh in 1789 for his voyage to the pacific in the Bounty to collect breadfruit. When the notorious mutiny occurred, in 1789, the watch was taken to Pitcairn Island. It was finally bought from the last of the mutineers by the whaler Captain Matthew Folger in 1804 and, after passing through the hands of the Governor of Juan Fernandez, a Chilean muleteer and finally the English Consul in Concepcion, the watch was sold to Admiral Sir Thomas Herbert who, on behalf of the Admiralty, lent it to the Royal United Service Institution's museum in 1843. It was then transferred to the NMM in the 1960s. Credit line: © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London Object: ZAA0078 Artist: Larcum Kendall Date: 1772 Medium: metal: brass; metal: steel; wood: mahogany Size: 165 mm x 125 mm x 50 mm Click here to buy a bespoke print of this image.