Page:A Voyage to Terra Australis Volume 1.djvu/242

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16
A VOYAGE TO
[In England.

1801.
July.

The deficiency of seven, and the two young gentlemen more than allowed, left the whole number of persons on board to be eighty eight, at the time of sailing.

Mr. Crosley, the astronomer, brought with him an assortment of instruments from the Board of Longitude; part for use at sea, and the larger instruments for making observations on shore, at such ports and bays as we might anchor in during the voyage. His time keepers were the numbers 543 and 520, and watch 465 of Earnshaw; and the numbers 176 and 82 of Arnold. Amongst the instruments supplied to me by the Navy Board, which were unconnected with the above and mostly intended for surveying, was Arnold's watch number 1736, sent for the purpose of being taken up rivers in the tender, or in boats. Its error from mean Greenwich time, at noon July 17, was 2′ 38″, 71 slow, and its rate of losing per day 4″, 41. This error and rate were given me by Mr. Bayly, mathematical master of the naval academy at Portsmouth, who had the kindness to take charge of the watch during our stay at Spithead.