Note: At the very end of Thomas Mudge senior's life, and in the years immediately following his death in 1794, his son Thomas Mudge jr, by profession a lawyer, set up a "manufactory" to produce marine time-keepers built accordhng to his fathers plans as embodied in the famous "blue" and "green" timekeepers. The enterprise was consigned to William Howells and Robert Pennington who received one of Mudge senior's time-keepers to copy. After far greater difficulties than anticipated, one machine was completed shortly before Mudge senior's death, two more following by early 1795.1n the event No 1 did not perform well, and it was therefore No 2 and the one offered here, No 3, which were the first two machines delivered to the Navy. They were immediately delivered to Bari Keith for a voyage to the East hndies durinng which they were daily rated by Captain Durban as were a chronometer by Arnold and another by Charles Haley. the results of a comparison of Mudge 3 with the Arnold against a common standard was later published by Thomas Mudge jr. Mudge jr's venture was not a success, the factory had been closed by 1798, and it is almost certain that less than thirty machines were produced. Of these only ten could have been worked on by Howells who separated from Mudge in 1796. Of surviving examples of Mudge jr's production, only three have retained their original escapements. That so many have been converted suggests that they were all sensitive and difficult to operate successfully. Use of Pemnington s distinctive balance in the present example No 3, suggests that its conversion to a springdetent may have been carried out by Pennington himself although whether at the same time as the movement was converted into a braclcet dock must remann a matter for speculation. Nonethless the instrument remains as an eloquent witness to an heroic, if doomed, episode in English horology. Literature: Cedric Jagger, Paul Philip Barraud, A Study of a fine Chronometer Malter and of his relatives, associates and successors in the Fane' Business, 1750-1929, London, 1968 ch 2. Anthony G. Randall, Catalogue of Watches in the British Museum VI. Pocket Chronometers, Marine Chronometers and other portable precision Timekeepers, London, 1990, p. 185, no. 166.