Did Pirates have watches?

[Sir Beachem Quick]

Hope some of you find this worth the time.

History of time pieces

[HarborMaster]

Thank you Sir Beachem Quick That was an awesome read ! very much appreciated.

[Sir Beachem Quick]

Well I do have my helpful moments on ocassion

[blackjohn]

A little bit later than our period, but possibly of interest...

I've read that the common sailors who survived Anson's circumnavigation of the globe/capture of the Manilla Galleon became so wealthy that some purchased pocket watches and skipped them like stones across the river.

[Sir Beachem Quick]

I suspect very few pirates had watches because the technology was still developing. But, according to the article they were around in the time frame.

[blackjohn]

I don't know if you are familiar with Jame Burke's show The Day the Universe changed or not, but I remember one episode where he got talking about pocket watches, and how amazing they were. I think his quote was "owning one of these was like, well... owning your own personal time machine."

[Cire]

And here I thought owning a watch was owning your own personal time machine...

Very interesting info that.

[jim hawkins]

Sure they had watches. Ship captains were often heard to say to the crew things like....

'Mr hawkins you have first watch, blackjohn you have second watch...'

[sirhenrymorgan]

The watch that accurately shows the time of the Port Royal earthquake in 1692 was a pocket watch that was made in 1668 in England. So timepieces, at least in Port Royal, certainly weren't too rare. In fact, two different pocket watches found during the very small excavations of the ruins both had the same time on them when they stopped - 11:43 a.m.

-- Time does indeed stand still in times of disaster.

-- Sir Henry