Brass hourglass, 1812
Edward Nairne, London
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This brass hourglass originally ran for 30 minutes and was used aboard HMS Amelia.
Such sandglasses regulated watchkeeping: one ‘glass’ equals 30 minutes; eight glasses equal four hours, or one watch, marked by eight bells.
A rare brass hourglass, that probably initially ran 30 min, to measure the watches.
In 1812 mounted on the Amelia, but probably production was earlier as Nairne worked in Cornhill, London from 1753 till 1793 (died in 1806)
The HMS Amelia; She spent 20 years in the Royal Navy, participating in numerous actions in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, capturing a number of prizes, and serving on anti-smuggling and anti-slavery patrols. Her most notable action was her intense and bloody, but inconclusive, fight with Aréthuse in 1813. Amelia was broken up in December 1816.
So probably this hourglass survived the fight with Aréthuse in 1813.