Knots and Nautical Miles - How they came about.

Many of Iron Wharf visitors are competent sailors, with a huge wealth of knowledge.  And phrases are used with the assumption we all know what they mean!

Two such phrases are Knots and Nautical Miles.

1 Nautical mile per hour is the equipment to 1 knot.  Strickly speaking 1 knot = 1.15 miles.
In the 17th Century there was still a need to measure speed, and sailors used 'a common log' to do this.
A common log was a length of rope with a piece of triangular wood attached the one end and knots tied along the length at uniform intervals.
The line was thrown overboard, and allowed to pay out from a coil, on its own.  After a set amount of time the line was hauled in and the number of knots that had payed out was counted.  This gave the speed of the vessel, ie. 20 knots.

#nauticalterms#common#log#knot#speed#measure#boat#faversham#boatyard#

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