Naval Time and watches

Ship Organisation

There is no room for passengers in a warship. Everyone on board must have a job to do and jobs must be so arranged that they do not overlap. If one pair of hands or one brain in a ship is idle when it shouldn't be, that ship is running less efficiently than it should.

By tradition and by necessity, sailors are jacks-of-all-trades, but in this age of complicated equipment and crowded ships it has also become necessary for a sailor to become master of at least one trade. A ship is organized in such a way that the men of all trades work together to form a team. That is, the work of the men of one trade complimets or adds to that of all the other trades and so on, until everyone is working efficiently and all jobs are being done. It is necessary then. to allocate certain particular jobs to men of certain trades.

Naval Time and Watches

In a ship, the day is divided into watches, and the watches are divided into half-hour periods. At the end of every half hour period the ship's bell is struck. The 24-hour clock is used instead of the usual 12-hour variety.

Watches are as follows;               

0000 - 0400  middle watch               

0400 - 0800  morning watch

0800 - 1200  forenoon watch

1200 - 1600  afternoon watch

1600 - 1800  first dog watch

1800 - 2000  last dog watch

2000 - 0000  first watch

Each of the 4-hour watches begins and ends with 8 bells. At the end of the first half hour of the watch 1 bell is struck; at the end of the second half hour 2 bells; the third half hour, 3 bells, and so on until at the end of the eighth half hour, or the end of the watch, 8 bells are struck.

What is Fathom

Fathom was originally a land measuring term derived from the Ango-Saxon word "faetm" meaning to embrace.

In ancient days, most measurements were based on average size of parts of the body, such as the hand (horses are still measured this way) or the foot (that's why 12 inches are so named).

A fathom is the average distance from fingertip to fingertip of the outstretched arms of a man - about six feet. Since a man stretches out his arms to embrace his sweetheart, Britain's Parliament declared that distance be called a "fathom" and it be a unit of measure. A fathom remains six feet. The word was also used to describe taking the measure or "to fathom" something.

Today, of course, when one is trying to figure something out, they are trying to "fathom" it.