BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 'TERRA NOVA', 1910-1913 A silver open face key wind deck watch by ...

BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION, 'TERRA NOVA', 1910-1913 A silver open face key wind deck watch by Daniel Buckney, 5 King Square, London, used on Scott's Terra Nova voyage Date: London Hallmark for 1892 Movement: Gilt full plate, cut and compensated bi-metallic balance, diamond end stone, No.30737 Dial: White, black Roman numeral hour markers, black outer minute track, subsidiary seconds at 6, No.30737 Case: Polished round, No.30737 Signed: Dial & movement, case stamped J.O Size: 54mm Accompaniments: Wooden display box with ivory plaque secured by two screws Footnotes: ONE OF THE WATCHES USED TO NAVIGATE TO ANTARCTICA DURING SCOTT'S ILL-FATED TERRA NOVA EXPEDITION, lent to him by the Admiralty. The primary reference for navigation at sea was the ship's marine chronometer, which was protected from the elements and kept below decks in a fixed position in a box suspended in gimbals. Deck watches, on the other hand, were portable and used for navigational observations on deck, and could also be used on land: see Evans' padded chronometer watch case used during the southern journey (SPRI Y:66/13/8) and Ponting's famous photograph of Scott writing his diary in the hut in October 1911 with two watches hanging on the wall behind him (illustration 74 in The Great White South). According to the records of the Royal Observatory Greenwich (see supporting image, © National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London), the present deck watch with serial number 30737 was purchased from Buckney in March 1894 and variously used on HMS Widgeon and HMS Pearl, with transfers to the Cape of Good Hope and Devonport, and many periods back with Buckney presumably for cleaning, servicing and adjustment. The record shows that on 13 August 1908 this watch was transferred again to the Cape of Good Hope. Terra Nova sailed from Cardiff on 15 June 1910, under the command of Lieutenant Edward Evans, who would later write, 'we reached Simon's Town on August 15 [1910], and here the Naval authorities gave us every assistance, lent us working parties, and made good our long defect list' (South with Scott, p.22). This must have included the present watch, since Terra Nova did not stop into Cape Town again; after the tragic end of the expedition, she sailed from New Zealand via Cape Horn back to England, reaching the Scilly Isles on 14 June 1913. The watch was logged back into Greenwich on 18 June 1913, sent to the Disposals Board in July 1922 and taken out of circulation on 24 May 1923. All five of those who made the final push to the pole - Scott, Evans, Wilson, Bowers and Oates - would have carried such a precision watch on which the navigation and success of their expedition depended. These would have been found with the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers, although a full record of the items recovered seems not to have been made. We have traced only two surviving watches used by Scott: his Discovery deck watch in the Royal Museums Greenwich (object ID ZBA1611), and the alarm watch used by him on his final southern journey and featured in Ponting's photograph, now in British Horological Institute's 'Museum of Timekeeping' at Upton Hall, Upton, Newark-on-Trent. The display box within this lot containing ivory has been registered in accordance with the Ivory Act (Section 10), with non-transferable reference (N81LMP43). Provenance: Royal Observatory Greenwich, purchased 1894 and disposed of 24 May 1923; UK private collection. This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: Y Ф Y Subject to CITES regulations when exporting items outside of the UK, see clause 13. Ф This lot contains or is made of ivory and cannot be imported into the USA or any country within the EU. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing