Shenandoah Down Under Episode 40 | Shenandoah Down Under

As the Shenandoah travels further back into the Pacific and closer to the American mainland the weather is warmer, and the ship is travelling at a fair clip, but all is not well in the hearts of men. After a month where whaling crews have been trying to tell them, with increasing stridency that the war is over, are the crew of the Shenandoah beginning to suspect that, perhaps, the war is over?

While they ponder this question 150 years ago, Rob and Mob turn their attention to a slightly different subject. The Shenandoah took the chronometer of every prize as a trophy. Just why was the chronometer so crucial to the operations of a ship, and why did the best minds of several centuries try (and often fail) to develop a practical method of finding longtitude?