Mystic — Mystic Seaport has announced that is will open a new traveling exhibit on Sept. 19 that focuses on the race to determine longitude at sea and features some original artifacts.

Titled “Ships, Clocks & Stars: The Quest for Longitude,” the exhibit has been created by the National Maritime Museum, London, and is sponsored by United Technologies. It will run through March 28, 2016, in the R.J. Schaefer Building. Entry is included in the museum’s general admission.

Coinciding with the opening, Dr. Richard Dunn, senior curator for the history of science at the National Maritime Museum, will make a presentation on Sept. 17 at 7 p.m. Admission is free for museum members; $15 for non-members. Call (860) 572-5331 to register.

According to the Seaport, the exhibit celebrates the 300th anniversary of the British Longitude Act of 1714, which offered a huge prize for any practical way to determine longitude at sea.

“For a maritime nation such as Britain, growing investment in long distance trade, outposts and settlements overseas made the ability to accurately determine a ship’s longitude increasingly important,” stated the Seaport in its announcement and going off course could spell disaster for a ship and its cargo.

It took five decades to solve the problem of determining longitude (east-west position).

“Through the latest research and extraordinary, historic artifacts — many from the collection of the National Maritime Museum and never before displayed outside the UK— the exhibition tells the story of the clockmakers, astronomers, naval officers, and others who pursued the long ‘quest for longitude’ to ultimate success,” added the Seaport.

Steve White, president of Mystic Seaport, said, “This exhibit is more than the story of longitude: it is the story of human problem-solving, and it is as relevant today as it was in the eighteenth century.”