In June of 1920, a semi-obscure retired Royal Navy officer working on a book covering the history of marine chronometers ran across something remarkable at the Royal Observatory at Greenwich: the clocks known as H1, H2, H3, and H4, which had been built over the course of a lifetime by John Harrison. But what he found horrified him. Four of the most important clocks in the history of horology had laid ignored for so long that they were not only in a state of complete disrepair, but also extremely filthy. The man in question was Lieutenant Commander Rupert T. Gould, who was later to write, “All were dirty, defective, and corroded – while No. 1 (H1) in particular looked like it had gone down with the Royal George and been on the bottom ever since. It was covered – even the wooden portions – with a bluish-green patina…I could not bear to see them in this condition. It seemed to me such a futile, tragic ending to a great adventure. They were the first accurate marine chronometers ever made – the life work of an original genius who was also an Englishman…surely they deserved a better fate.”
In The Shop: ‘The Marine Chronometer: Its History And Development’ – A Horological Masterpiece, And The Eccentric Genius Who Wrote It
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