NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Re: Cable units
From: Yves Arrouye
Date: 2001 Jul 13, 12:37 AM
From: Yves Arrouye
Date: 2001 Jul 13, 12:37 AM
> A cable is a tenth of a mile - around 185.2 metres Thanks. So my memory is good (good news, given I'm just entering my 2nd 1/3 of life expectancy!). And it's not just a French thing. Now who's going to write Merriam-Webster ;-)? YA > R. > Yves wrote..... > > I don't know about shackle, but since the subject says cable, I have a > follow-up: what length is your cable unit? Merriam-Webster says: > > a maritime unit of length variously reckoned as 100 > fathoms, 120 fathoms, > or 608 feet > > I think in France we said 1/10th of a Nm, which is close to > these. But I'm > not sure anymore. Do English people all relate the cable to > the fathom, or > do they also relate it to the nautical mile, and then make a fathom > approximation (which may vary, apparently). Or was there a > traditional cable > length for vessels that gave birth to this unit? > > YA