Lost At Sea: The Search For Longitude

In 1714 the British government put forward a Longitude Prize for anyone that could come up with a way to to determine a ships longitude. Latitude was not a problem and could be determined by the Sun but Longitude was no more than guess work which led to many ships being lost at sea. Many methods were put forward but two of the ways that showed most promise were a clock or timepiece that was capable of keeping almost perfect time at sea and the use of Astronomy, using the planets as a guide. In this film we follow those who set out to solve the problem and win the huge £20,000 prize (£2.52 million in today's money). John Harrison was one of those who thought he could create a clock that would be able to keep time at sea and he dedicated his entire life to the project but the Astronomers were totally against the idea, so much that it took the intervention of The King to settle the argument.

Watch the full documentary now on Documentary Fans Release Date: 1998 Duration: 53 Minutes.