At 1 fathom one knot.
2 " two knots.
3 " three knots.
4 " four knots.
5 " white rag.
6 " six knots.
7 " red rag.
8 " blue rag.
9 " nothing.
10 " piece of leather.
A small piece of white rag may also be inserted at the half-fathoms between two and three.
EIGHT BELLS, AND WATCH AND WATCH.
Time at sea is divided differently than on shore; and the day commences at twelve o'clock, noon. The reason of this is, that at that time usually, at sea, the navigator determines and ascertains the position of the ship, hence the true time; and the clock is corrected from the difference in longitude from noon of the preceding day.
The time of twelve o'clock is denoted by striking the vessel's bell eight times in a peculiar manner, thus: by sets of twos, one, two, rapidly following each other, then a pause of three or four seconds, and then the next set of twos, thus: one, two—one, two—one, two—one, two; whilst seven bells would be struck thus: one, two—one, two—one, two—one; and three bells: one, two—one; four bells: one, two—one, two.
This system of eight strokes of the bell does for the whole twenty-four hours, each stroke denoting one half-hour: hence eight bells cover a space of four hours, which is termed a watch, and, if each watch was four hours long, of course there would be six such watches in the twenty four hours; and the crew, divided as they always are into starboard and port watches, would, during the whole voyage, have just the same hours on deck. That is to say, the starboard watch would come on deck at twelve o'clock noon every day of the voyage, and stay till four P.M.
This would not be fair to the other watch; and to avoid this repetition, and to divide the time differently each day, the hours from four to eight in the afternoon are divided up into what are called dog-watches of two hours each, which breaks up the daily regularity, and changes the hours; so that the starboard watch who happen to be on deck from twelve to four P.M. one day are the next day below during the same hours, and the port watch on deck; and thus the same watches come round every forty-eight hours. After the bell is struck at twelve noon by order of the navigator or sailing-master, the time will be kept as follows:—
| 12.00 | o'clock, | noon | . . . | 8 bells | |
| 12.30 | " | P.M. | . . . | 1 bell | } |
| 1.00 | " | " | . . . | 2 bells | } |
| 1.30 | " | " | . . . | 3 bells | } |
| 2.00 | " | " | . . . | 4 bells | } Afternoon |
| 2.30 | " | " | . . . | 5 bells | } Watch. |
| 3.00 | " | " | . . . | 6 bells | } |
| 3.30 | " | " | . . . | 7 bells | } |
| 4.00 | " | " | . . . | 8 bells | } |
| 4.30 | " | " | . . . | 1 bell | } |
| 5.00 | " | " | . . . | 2 bells | } First Dog |
| 5.30 | " | " | . . . | 3 bells | } Watch. |
| 6.00 | " | " | . . . | 4 bells | } |
| 6.30 | " | " | . . . | 5 bells | } Second |
| 7.00 | " | " | . . . | 6 bells | } Dog- |
| 7.30 | " | " | . . . | 7 bells | } Watch. |
| 8.00 | " | " | . . . | 8 bells | } |
| 8.30 | " | " | . . . | 1 bell | } |
| 9.00 | " | " | . . . | 2 bells | } |
| 9.30 | " | " | . . . | 3 bells | } First |
| 10.00 | " | " | . . . | 4 bells | } Night- |
| 10.30 | " | " | . . . | 5 bells | } Watch. |
| 11.00 | " | " | . . . | 6 bells | } |
| 11.30 | " | " | . . . | 7 bells | } |
| 12.00 | " | midnight | . . . | 8 bells | } |
| 12.30 | " | A.M. | . . . | 1 bell | } |
| 1.00 | " | " | . . . | 2 bells | } |
| 1.30 | " | " | . . . | 3 bells | } Second |
| 2.00 | " | " | . . . | 4 bells | } Night- |
| 2.30 | " | " | . . . | 5 bells | } Watch. |
| 3.00 | " | " | . . . | 6 bells | } |
| 3.30 | " | " | . . . | 7 bells | } |
| 4.00 | " | " | . . . | 8 bells | } |
| 4.30 | " | " | . . . | 1 bell | } |
| 5.00 | " | " | . . . | 2 bells | } |
| 5.30 | " | " | . . . | 3 bells | } |
| 6.00 | " | " | . . . | 4 bells | } Morning- |
| 6.30 | " | " | . . . | 5 bells | } Watch. |
| 7.00 | " | " | . . . | 6 bells | } |
| 7.30 | " | " | . . . | 7 bells | } |
| 8.00 | " | " | . . . | 8 bells | } |
| 8.30 | " | " | . . . | 1 bell | } |
| 9.00 | " | " | . . . | 2 bells | } |
| 9.30 | " | " | . . . | 3 bells | } |
| 10.00 | " | " | . . . | 4 bells | } Forenoon- |
| 10.30 | " | " | . . . | 5 bells | } Watch. |
| 11.00 | " | " | . . . | 6 bells | } |
| 11.30 | " | " | . . . | 7 bells | } |
| 12.00 | " | noon | . . . | 8 bells | } |