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[jerryrlitton]

Nautical terms and Phrases

[genieskip]

Originally Posted by jerryrlitton

Nautical terms and Phrases

One of my pet peeves is discussed in this list. The dog watch is not the one that comes in the middle of the night, which should be called the mid watch, but the two watches from 4 to 6 pm and from 6 and 8 pm. So many people get this wrong. If you go four on four off from 12 to 4 to 8 to 12 in your watches you get to have the same watch each day since this results in 6 watches. To "dog" the watches you need an odd number of watches.

On the old navy ships and square riggers the watch from 4 to 8 pm was split into two. The crew off watch in those four hours didn't usually sleep, they ate dinner (or what passed for food in those days), hung around the scuttlebutt (the water barrel) and had the social part of the day. This way the number of watches in 24 hours was 7 and automatically "dogged" so if you had the mid watch one night you'd have it off the next night.

Another bit nautical lore is restored!

[Boasun]

Originally Posted by genieskip

One of my pet peeves is discussed in this list. The dog watch is not the one that comes in the middle of the night, which should be called the mid watch, but the two watches from 4 to 6 pm and from 6 and 8 pm. So many people get this wrong. If you go four on four off from 12 to 4 to 8 to 12 in your watches you get to have the same watch each day since this results in 6 watches. To "dog" the watches you need an odd number of watches.

On the old navy ships and square riggers the watch from 4 to 8 pm was split into two. The crew off watch in those four hours didn't usually sleep, they ate dinner (or what passed for food in those days), hung around the scuttlebutt (the water barrel) and had the social part of the day. This way the number of watches in 24 hours was 7 and automatically "dogged" so if you had the mid watch one night you'd have it off the next night.

Another bit nautical lore is restored!

Actually it is 4 on and 8 off... And the number of 4 hr watches in a day is 8 not 7 (do your times table; 4 X 8 = 24).
But the dog watchs were used to shift the watch back one watch.
One reason was that if you had the 4 to 8 watch you put in a 16 hour. the Navy demanded that you work from 0800 to 1600. That was the way life was when I served in the Navy. We shifted the watches once a week.

[SundancerKid]

Originally Posted by Boasun

Actually it is 4 on and 8 off... And the number of 4 hr watches in a day is 8 not 7 (do your times table; 4 X 8 = 24).
But the dog watchs were used to shift the watch back one watch.
One reason was that if you had the 4 to 8 watch you put in a 16 hour. the Navy demanded that you work from 0800 to 1600. That was the way life was when I served in the Navy. We shifted the watches once a week.

errrrr.. actually no, 4x8 = 32 ....

... and 4x7 = 28 ....

genieskip is correct, there would be six 4 hour watches in a day (4x6=24) but with the 2 hour dog watch there are 7 watches in a day. This is for a two watch system. If you were getting 4 hours on and 8 off then you must've stood a three watch system which is quite different.

[SVPrairieRose]

Another correction... A fathom is a measure of depth, not length.

[poopdeckpappy]

My Gawd mun, no wonder that US Sub hit a freak'n freighter, nobody's on watch but the poor dog

[Boasun]

Originally Posted by SVPrairieRose

Another correction... A fathom is a measure of depth, not length.

It is?? That is funny because I've used fathoms as a measurement of line.
It is 6 feet from finger tip to finger tip with arms stretched out... Thus I only had to do 15 to measure out 90 feet of line and be very acturate.
A shot of chain is 15 fathoms also and viewed that way by the professionals.
SO it must be Length as well as depth.

[poopdeckpappy]

Ah, I always thought a measure of length or distants was a league and a measure of depth a fathom

But I suppose a rose by any other name would still smells as sweet or however that saying goes

[SundancerKid]

Gotta go with boasun this time round.

A fathom is a measure of distance (or length) of 6 feet. There are many units of measure of distance including league, mile, inch, meter, chain, rod, furlong and cubit among them. None of them imply a direction whether up, down or sideways.

So while fathom is generally used for measuring depth, there's no reason it can't be used for measuring other things and certainly chain is often measured in fathoms, as boasun says.

[heinzir]

As long as we are on the subject of nautical terms: what is the origen and proper use of the term "Cutlass bearing?" Some publications call it a "Cutless bearing." Which spelling is correct? Should it be capitalized? Is "Cutless" a trademarked name that has come into general use? Inquiring minds want to know.