Kelly Prime

Unfortunately, the Marine Chronometer did exactly what Parliament had hoped when they first set up the Longitude Act over a century earlier.

It threw gasoline on the fire of British imperialism.

The Royal Navy made Marine Chronometers standard issue.

And captains of merchant vessels, like those sailing with the British East India Company, got their own chronometers too.

Here's Deva Sobel again.

In the end, the marine chronometer ended up being just one tool in a toolbox full of tools that the British used for world domination.

But actually, one of the chronometer's most lasting impacts came indirectly, from its role in mapmaking.

In 1831, the surveying vessel the HMS Beagle carried Charles Darwin to the Galapagos.

It also carried 22 marine chronometers.

You know, just in case.

The widespread use of marine chronometers meant that by the late 19th century, most Western trading vessels were using British maritime charts.

So when a global conference was held to pick one standard line of zero degrees longitude for the international community, the choice was obvious.

I wonder how having longitude changed navigation.

Back on the buccaneer with Todd, as he was steering us through jagged rocks and hundreds of shipwrecks, I didn't take for granted that I could just look at the dashboard and get information that a few hundred years ago would have seemed like a miracle.

You're looking at the screen right now.

What is that?

And what's our longitude right now?

Good to know.

I do.

So as I was reporting this story, one element kept coming up for me, which is that the story we're telling about Longitude and the Longitude problem and the act is a very Eurocentric one.