Measurements

[happy daze john in oz]

Interesting bit about conversion of measurements.
Each day at sea the noon position is given.
Air and sea temperature are given in both scales.
Distance covered and average speed also given in both.

But when it comes to tonnage and length etc it is only given in metric.

We grew up with tonnage in imperial, how did our ships size up to those of today?

[j.sabourn]

#11.... No different one might say John. In the old linear measurements most of the old hands on here were brought up with draft figures in feet and inches easy to read at a glance , each figure was 6 inches in height and the space between each figure was 6 inches. Today they are in metres and decametres. Your plimsolls all lines were 1 inch wide so could also read to the nearest inch. When talking about distances it was always. Nautical miles of 6080 feet which could be picked off the side of the chart with your dividers , one minute of latitude equalling 1 nautical mile. This was on a Mercator chart which was the most common chart in usage. Your water depths were in fathoms and feet, today are in metres. It was common in giving distances off in cables which was one tenth of a nautical mile or roughly 600 feet , not to be confused with an 1 shackle of anchor cable which was 15 fathoms or 90 feet. Your old barometer readings used to be in inches, then went to millibars and the last time I looked were Hextopascals. All different names to confuse , and as in a recent post maybe because they sound better. All your stability workings in feet and inches had to be converted to metric. it’s really too long to go into. Myself I used to prefer whenever possible to convert back to old linear figures and work out, it may take 3 times longer, but at least to me it made it more understandable . That’s progress I suppose. All sounds good and much easier to those who never had and will never have to work with fathoms and feet, and feet and inches, and the marks and deeps on lead lines which were also measured in fathoms Cheers JS.

[robpage]

computer says metric

[j.sabourn]

That’s the way computers also work Rob. In tens and hiundreds. All nautical logarithms were also to base ten. Long before metric became universal or nearly so when applied to shipping. I think the yanks are about the only western maritime seafarers who carry on with their own weights and measures , good on them if they are still doing so. JS

[cappy]

###just as a matter of interest ...i know what my height is in feet and inches ......iknow what my weight is in stones and pounds ....but i have absolutely no idea of iether in metric.....i believe i am not on my own in the older folk in general....not bothered anyway ...cappy

[Tony Taylor]

###just as a matter of interest ...i know what my height is in feet and inches ......iknow what my weight is in stones and pounds ....but i have absolutely no idea of iether in metric.....i believe i am not on my own in the older folk in general....not bothered anyway ...cappy

you are not alone....

[Tony Taylor]

#11.... No different one might say John. That’s progress I suppose. All sounds good and much easier to those who never had and will never have to work with fathoms and feet, and feet and inches, and the marks and deeps on lead lines which were also measured in fathoms Cheers JS.

There are still "anomalies", for example, in the engineering world generally pipe sizes are still referred to in inches, but for the relevant dimensions e.g. bore, wall thickness it is in mm.As for pressure I find this most confusing started out as pounds per square inch, then kg per sq. centimetre then bar and now pascals. Does my head in, especially when looking at drawings of older kit still in service. Dont bring up the American standards as I will lose it completely, I cant understand why they talk about everything in pounds, e.g. 100,000 pounds when 50 tons would suffice, or does that not carry as much weight....?

[j.sabourn]

Cappy even from 12000 miles away, a little less than that if nautical. I can read your mind. Think of any number , double it, add 50, half it , and take away the number you first thought of. The answer is 25.if I’m right you can send that 3/9d. Back. JS

[cappy]

Cappy even from 12000 miles away, a little less than that if nautical. I can read your mind. Think of any number , double it, add 50, half it , and take away the number you first thought of. The answer is 25.if I’m right you can send that 3/9d. Back. JS

###like that one on john but not to upset you it is as old as that three and ninepence you owe me ie two pints at one shilling and one penny...equals two and tuppence .....take away two and tuppence from three and ninepence...leaves one and seven pennies which you owe mary for your goings on....which out of respect i will not mention ....after all this is a MERCHANT NAVY SITE ......LOL cappy####ps grandaughters both coming to for tea tonight it is the older ones birthday i shall dazzle them with my mathematical prowess .......cappy

[j.sabourn]

#17. Are you referring to short tons Tony a normal ton was or used to be 2240 lbs if memory I had hasnt gone yet.A short ton was 2000 lbs. A metric ton or tonne I leave you to work out how many kilos or whatever they are. I’ll also stick with my overweight figure of 14 stone 2 lbs hopefully. And height of used to be 5 feet 8.25 inches , now reduced by having to bend too many times to fasten my shoe laces and picking up pennies that fell out of that hole in my pocket. If I managed to get them before Cappy did. Will have to stop now as starting to veer off site. But think Robin will understand that ships among other things aren’t what they used to be. Cheers JS.