GOING OF THE CHRONOMETERS. 
V 
already too great, inasmuch as it would have raised the chronometer still 
higher above the level of suspension. Moreover, as 286 was going, so far as 
could be judged by its daily comparison with the others, with remarkable 
steadiness, no alteration was made. It continued to go equally well until 
the afternoon of the 8th of June, when, the ship having considerable motion, 
it stopped ; having been wound on the 6th, the index of the spring stood at 
nearly two days and a half. It was then determined to remove it into a 
cot similar to the others ; in which being placed it was set going on the 9th, 
and was found to have again stopped at the noon comparison of the 10th. 
A third attempt to keep it going was alike unsuccessful ; it was, therefore, 
laid by for a time ; but, being again set in motion in the following month 
(July), it continued to go, though not with the same regularity as in the first 
month. 
No. 523 was worn in the pocket generally, and 2109 occasionally during 
the voyage. 
The chronometers were wound up and compared each day at noon, 
by Mr. Hooper and Capt. Sabine. 
The six box chronometers supplied by the Admiralty, and three of those 
which were individual property, were placed in Captain Sabine’s charge 
in the beginning of April, 1819, being five weeks before the sailing of the 
expedition ; this period was sufficient to form a judgment of the dependance 
which might be placed on each chronometer, in maintaining a steady and 
uniform rate from day to day ; it was also sufficient for the assignment 
of such rates, as might serve the ordinary purposes of navigation, until 
opportunities should present themselves on the voyage, of ascertaining the 
rates which they should have actually taken up on board with the exactness 
required on an occasion of discovery ; and it may be remarked, that no 
length of previous trial can enable a conclusive inference to be drawn, 
of the rates which may be subsequently maintained, on account of the 
liability to alteration, which has been noticed in chronometers, of otherwise 
the best reputation, on being removed from the shore to shipboard. 
An account is given, in Table I., of the going of these nine chronometers, 
during the five weeks of trial before their embarkation. 
All the chronometers designed for the expedition having been collected 
by the first week in May, they were embarked from Somerset House on 
the seventh, the differences of each on mean Greenwich time, having been 
carefully noted at the preceding midnight. 
