The Clock That Lost a Day Sailing West
Coming to Wonder Science on 27 November 2026.
In 1761 a sea-chest no bigger than a cabbage is swung aboard HMS Deptford at Portsmouth: inside ticks H4, John Harrison's gleaming sea-watch, which must keep perfect time all the way to Jamaica or the longitude problem stays unsolved. Travelling with it are the maker's son William Harrison, the cook's daughter Peg Tandy, round Captain Dudley Digges and a black ship's cat called Mizzen. Lemons roll, hats blow into the rigging, a key drops in the soup and a spyglass is swallowed by a topsail; at Madeira the thin astronomer Senhor Aurélio Braz climbs aboard with a brass telescope on his back. Then saltwater leaks onto the watch's cushions and the ship sits dead-becalmed under a blazing sun, and the little chest must be rebuilt, shaded, towed and finally lowered through surf onto Jamaican sand. On the Parade at Port Royal, with the Blue Mountains behind them, they check the watch against the sun: after eighty-one days at sea it has lost about five seconds, and sailors will never be lost again.
About this story
- Length
- 10 illustrated pages
Who appears
- William Harrison — The watchmaker's son, guardian of H4
- Peg Tandy — The cook's daughter, ten years old, quickest hands aboard
- Captain Dudley Digges — Commander of HMS Deptford
- Senhor Aurélio Braz — Madeiran astronomer and wine merchant who joins the voyage
- Mizzen — The ship's cat
What happens on 27 November 2026
This story is finished and scheduled. On 27 November 2026 it opens here in full — every page illustrated — as part of Wonder Science. Nothing on this page is a placeholder: the story exists, it has been reviewed, and this is its address.
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