Scilly Naval Disaster

October 22, 1707

Four English warships, unable to fix their longitude in fog, ran onto the Scilly Isles' rocks. Two thousand sailors, including Admiral Shovell, drowned. Parliament, appalled, would offer a prize for any method that could find longitude at sea. A Yorkshire clockmaker named John Harrison would answer. His marine chronometers, perfected over decades of obsessive craft, eventually solved the problem and saved countless lives.