Not until they created accurate clocks that would work on a ship. check out Longitude movie or series.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0192263/
A friend of mine, a retired engineer, built a reproduction of the H1, Harrison’s first clock. I did a series of Photographs of it, one of which made the cover of the March/April 2013 Watch and Clock Bulletin, (Vol. 55/2 Number 402)in which he wrote an article about the making of the clock.
Harrison’s story is pretty cool.
An April 1964 discussion with Dr Arnold Shostak about the hydrogen maser.led my father to start his Timation Navsat. With modification of the the signal it became GPS. See my website (and book!) www.gpsdeclassified.com