WATCH, quart, the space of time wherein one division of a ship’s crew remains upon deck, to perform the necessary services, whilst the rest are relieved from duty, either when the vessel is under sail, or at anchor.
The length of the sea-watch is not equal in the shipping of different nations. It is always kept four hours by our British seamen, if we except the dog-watch between four and eight in the evening, that contains two reliefs, each of which are only two hours on deck. The intent of this is to change the period of the night-watch every twenty-four hours; so that the party watching from eight till twelve in one night, shall watch from midnight till four in the morning on the succeeding one. In France the duration of the watch is extremely different, being in some places six hours, and in others seven or eight; and in Turky and Barbary it is usually five or six hours.
A ship’s company is usually classed into two parties; one of which is called the starboard and the other the larboard watch. It is, however, occasionally separated into three divisions, as in a road or in particular voyages.
In a ship of war the watch is generally commanded by a lieutenant, and in merchant-ships by one of the mates; so that if there are four mates in the latter, there are two in each watch; the first and third being in the larboard, and the second and fourth in the starboard watch: but in the navy the officers who command the watch usually divide themselves into three parts, in order to lighten their duty.
Watch-glasses, horloge, a name given to the glasses employed to measure the period of the watch, or to divide it into any number of equal parts, as hours, half-hours, &c. so that the several stations therein may be regularly kept and relieved; as at the helm, pump, look-out. &c.
To set the Watch, is to appoint one division of the crew to enter upon the duty of the watch; as at eight o’clock in the evening. Hence it is equivalent to mounting the guard in the army. See the French term Bordée.
WATER-BORNE, the state of a ship, with regard to the water surrounding her bottom, when there is barely a sufficient depth of it to float her off from the ground; particularly when she had for some time rested thereon.
For Dead-Water, Foul Water, and High-Water, see Dead, Foul, and High.
Water-lines, lignes d’eau, certain horizontal lines supposed to be drawn about the outside of a ship’s bottom, close to the surface of the water in which she floats. They are accordingly higher or lower upon the bottom, in proportion to the depth of the column of water required to float her. See a particular account of these in the article Naval Architecture.
In order to conceive a clearer idea of the curves of those lines when represented on a plane, let us suppose a ship laid upright on a level ground; so that the keel shall lie in the same position, with respect to the horizon, as when she is laden. We may then describe several black horizontal lines about her bottom, which may be whitened for that purpose.