Thomas Crow's sundial (1801)

Post date: Feb 04, 2014 5:34:21 PM

The 8 inch diameter brass dial is made for the latitude of Wateringbury. It is inscribed ‘T Crow Wateringbury fecit 1801’ and carries the motto ‘Nemo sine crimine vivit’ (‘Nobody lives without judgement’, possibly referring to the European countries with whom we were in conflict at the time). It has Arabic hour numerals from 4am to 8pm, divided to 5 and 15 minutes, and with simplified fleur-de-lys half hour marks.

In the face of the dial are references to six naval battles, each surrounded by a garland of leaves terminating in a pointer to a mark ‘1|2’. The clock time for each entry below shows where the ‘1|2’ is inscribed on the dial, and gives the time when it is noon at the corresponding longitude.

The inscriptions, in italics below, reading from east to west, are:

‘Where Ad Howe beat the French, June 1^st 1794’

12:22. Ushant, 5° 6´ W, 48° 27´ N.

Admiral Richard Howe

‘Where J Jarvis beat the Spaniards, Feb 14 1797’

12:35. Cape St Vincent, 9° 0´ W, 37° 2´ N.

Admiral Sir John Jervis

‘Bridport beat the French, June 25^th 1795’

12:14. Belle Île, Brittany, 3° 27´W, 47° 38´ N.

Admiral Alexander Hood, 1^st Viscount Bridport.

‘Nelson beat the Danes, April 2^nd 1801’

11:11. Copenhagen, 12° 34´ E, 55° 41´ N

Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1^st Viscount Nelson

‘Nelson beat the French, Aug 1^st 1798’

9:52. Aboukir Bay (‘The Battle of the Nile’), 30° 7´ E, 31° 20´ N

Rear-Admiral Horatio Nelson

‘Where Duncan beat the Dutch Oct 11^th 1797’

11:40. Camperdown, 4° 39´ E, 52° 44´ N.

Admiral Adam Duncan, 1^st Viscount Duncan

The National Maritime Museum, Grenwich catalogue suggests that the dial may have been made for one of the victorious officers of the Navy.

John Foad, November 2011

British Sundial Society

See image at http://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/10324.html

On 29th April 2012 the sundial was on display on the 1st floor of the National Maritime Museum in the central open area near to the 'Paul' Bakery with the label 'Naval Horizontal Dial' 113 (reference AST 0162).