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"More research, from George H. in 2004, has this:
3. The nautical day, noon-to-noon, 12 hours ahead of the civil day, used by
the Royal Navy until 1805, and the East India Company until the 1820s."

In organizations like the Royal Navy where things are done according to set
rules, you can probably pin down an actual date for this. Was it 1805
exactly? But otherwise, it's largely a matter of custom, convention, even
fashion. I've seen logbooks --written by very competent navigators-- as late
as 1870 where the "nautical day" was still in use. You have to read pretty
closely to tell whether they're using it or not. If you're lucky, you can
find a worked navigational problem. And when they write down the Sun's
declination, for example, it reveals the true date and approximate hour of
day at Greenwich which can then be compared with the recorded date and time
in the vessel's estimated longitude.

 -FER



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