A BULKHEAD CLOCK AND BAROMETER SET FROM H.M.S. EXETER

the clock (unsigned) with 6½in. enamel dial with single winding arbour to 8-day fusee movement numbered on the backplate 17529 and scratch inscribed Exeter with service dates '4/29; 10/32; 11/37'; the aneroid barometer with 6½in. enamel dial signed John Boyd, Glasgow, each contained within a brass drum bulkhead case and mounted on a wooden display base with brass provenance plaque and clock key (barometer glass cracked) the board -- 14½ x 31¾in. (37 x 80.5cm.)

Launched in July 1929, Exeter came into prominence at the battle of the River Plate which ended in the destruction of the German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee, in December 1939. Having sustained the full weight of the enemy's heavy guns until her consorts, Ajax and Achillies, arrived, Exeter scraped through with four of her six 8in. guns out of action and her steering gear smashed. Limping to Port Stanley for emergency repairs which took until January 1940, she was fully repaired and modernised at H.M. Dockyard, Devonport between 14 February 1940 and 10 March 1941 when it seems this fusée clock was updated for the newer going barrel type. Exeter returned to service in Far Eastern waters and was sunk in the Second Battle of the Java Sea, 1st March, 1942.