Now, too many ships were being lost like that, ... because they were lost, like that. But with the highly profitable American colonies waiting to be exploited, this was just the time for investors to be sinking their money into transatlantic transportation that wasn't sinking. So a very large prize was offered for anybody who could come up with safer ways of getting places. And back. In 1765 a clockmaker named John Harrison provided a timely solution.

James Burke