This chronometer was loaned by Parkinson and Frodsham to Captain William Parry (1790-1855) in HMS Hecla for his expedition to discover the North West Passage in 1819, in company with HMS Griper. The expedition was highly successful pushing further West than any previous attempts. The chronometer is recorded as having performed exceptionally well during the voyage, keeping a steady rate at 40°F below zero, while ten other chronometers on the same ship actually stopped working owing to the cold. At the end of the voyage the chronometer was bought from P&F by Parry’s fellow officers and presented to him. Parry took the chronometer on his second voyage to the Arctic, in1821-1823, this time in HMS Fury, but with Hecla in company. Fury also had twelve other chronometers on board, 10 by P&F (two of which were loaned by them) and two loaned by others. The chronometer then accompanied Parry on his third voyage to the Arctic, again with Fury and Hecla in 1824-1825. Eleven chronometers were again taken by Parry in Hecla, six belonging to the Government and five privately, P&F 259 being one of them. This time the chronometer did not perform quite as well as in the first voyage and was the least consistent of all the timekeepers, starting the voyage with a rate of +8 seconds per day, and returning 10 months later gaining 14 seconds per day [FN: Parry, W.E., Journals of the first, second and third voyages for the discovery of a North-West Passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific, in 1819-20-21-22-23-24-25, in His Majesty's Ships Hecla, Griper and Fury, John Murray, London,1828-1829]. In February 1851 Parry sent his chronometer to the Observatory to be rated, with a view it seems to selling it to the Admiralty for Royal Navy use, but its performance was not sufficiently good and it was returned to him. The later service of the chronometer is not recorded. It was purchased from a Mrs D.A. Blaxland of Surbiton on 22 November 1956 for £25. The chronometer was loaned to The Victory Museum in Portsmouth between 1957 and 1972. On 7 February 1985 it made an appearance on the BBC television programme Tomorrow’s World.