Timepiece that held the key to the most infamous mutiny in British naval history.
Dragged from his cabin, bewildered and wearing only a nightdress, Captain William Bligh of the HMS Bounty was facing a nightmarish scenario.
Half of his ship's crew, emboldened by the rallying cries of traitorous first mate Fletcher Christian, were in mutiny.
About to be cast off by his own men, his thoughts must have been panicked - stranded more than 1,300 west of Tahiti, his prospects of survival appeared bleak.
And yet, in the midst of one of the most notorious incidents in British naval history, Captain Bligh did not plead for his life.
Instead, he demanded the mutineers hand over the ship's chronometer.
Alongside his clerk John Samuel, Bligh pleaded with the mutineers to let him take K2, a timekeeping device that allowed the crew to determine their longitude.
Documents held by the University of Cambridge reveal for the first time how Bligh interrupted the chaotic mutiny in 1789 to try and save the valued timepiece.
In his account of events he wrote: 'Mr Samuel attempted to save the time-keeper but he was hurried away by the mutineers with: "Damn your eyes: you are well off to get what you have".'
Why was Captain Bligh, facing such unprecedented catastrophe, so desperate to leave with the chronometer?
Was it a symbolic gesture, did he simply wish to cling on to something which helped maintain a sense of order?
The answer may in fact have been much less romantic. The chronometer was worth a serious amount of money.
Bligh had made a promise to the Admiralty that he would look after K2 which had cost £200 (around £11,000 in today's money).
He wrote to the Board of Longitude on October 18, 1787, acknowledging receipt of the device 'which I promise to return to (the maker) on their order or demand.'
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| Admission: Captain Bligh's letter to the Admiralty explaining that the chronometer was 'pirated from my command' |
And K2's value was more than just monetary, in 18th Century seafaring it was a key tool of survival.
Fed up with Bligh's floggings and hungry to return to the kind of idyllic life they had enjoyed in Tahiti, Christian and his mutineers lowered the deposed captain and his loyalists into a rowing boat and left them for dead.
They then used K2 to navigate their way to Pitcairn Island which they believed would be the perfect place to hide out.
Simon Schaffer, Professor of History at Cambridge University, told The Times that the watch enabled the crew to work out that Pitcairn was inaccurately marked on the Admiralty's maps.
They then set fire to the Bounty to cover their tracks.
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