It is not surprising that the sea is a particular obsession with the British since as an island they are surrounded 
on all sides by the sea. Chronometers and timekeepers, sextants, compasses and barometers always find a ready market.
It is not only for sentimental reasons, all the instruments were, and to a lesser extent, still are essential to the lives of sailors. You cannot navigate without being able to accurately tell the time and the importance to be able to gauge the 
barometric pressure is paramount. As a result, no economies were made on these instruments. If money needed to be saved it came off the ship/s biscuit, not the clock. These items were made of brass, generally boxed in brass bound mahogany and they tend to have been very well cared for.
Life aboard a sailing ship has been described as “long periods of boredom interspersed with brief 
moments of terror”, and it was during the long periods that many models of ships, scrimshaw on whalebone and tusk, shell work pictures and the like were created. Modern ecological thinking has steadied the price of items made from whale over recent years.
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