The Clio messenger. (Clio, Mich.) 1907-current, 1912-04-26

ings. Short Article Covering Shlps
and Shipping.
An event like the sinking Of the
Titanic creates an interest among
landSmen about The mAnner OF con-
ducting things at sea.
One Of the things about the sea
which is mysterious TO landsmen is
sea time. Aboard ship the day is
divided inlo II atches" of four hours
zach with The exception of the time
from four 10 eight in the afternoon.
This watch is divided into two
which are called ''dog watches. II
ii were not for these dog watches"
one half the crew would have eight
hours on deck every night while the
Dlhcr half had only four.
The time goes by "bells" instead
of hours. Four, eight and twelve
o'clock arc "eight bells. Half past
Twelve is zone bell', one o'clock is
fwo BELLS" and so on, one more bell
Htyery half hour, till eight bells" or
four O'Clock, then it begins again
with zone bell" at half past four.
The crew is divided into two
watches, the "starboard watch" and
9port watch" and are on duty watch
a.ld watch, four hours OH and four
off except in the dog watches. On
steamships the engine room force.
fircmen, coal passers, etc. are aerer:
ally divided into three witches and
have four hours on and eight off.
On passenger linersf the captain,
of course, is supreme but has espec-
/, ia,-eba26nnns- navigation Of the
Gin. cngineer has full
barge os ,',eN Eine and boiler
rooms and IS. eNvible only to the
lcaptain. The purser hooks out for
; the business department of the ship
and for the passengers and has un-
der him the stewards, cooks etc. In
the "deck" department the captain
has as assistants from four to eight
or ten "mates" or "officers" as they
are generally called on steamships.
These "officers" are on duty at GER
tain hours which vary according
fo the number of "officers" the ship
carries, the trade the ship is in, and
the nationality of the ship.
/. Every liner carries number OF
"petty officers" such us quartermas-
tc,s. boatswains etc. The quarter
masters do the steering and have
other duties which vary according to
The number carried and for other
reasons.
The modern lire-' also carry a
host of other minor officials which
are too numerous to mention in a
short article.
The position of ship at sea is
determined in various ways. The
latitude and longitude can be found
by observations of the sun, moon,
and stars. On big liners all these
methods are used In addition to
these the position is calculated by
what is called dead reckoning" this
lis done by starting from a known
position and keeping records of the
course stecred and speed of the ship.
|rhe speed of the ship is discovered
in various ways; by the number
of revolutions the engines are max
ing; by the "patent log" which reg
listers the number of miles covered
in The same way that cyclometer
does, and by the "hand log" The
ishand log is a line with a "dray" on
he end Of it, the line being knotted
ctEtain measured distances. The
lag" is thrown overheard and rs
linz runs out one man counts
Enots. Another man holds q
sand glass, usually 80 second glass.
When the first knot runs out the
man at the line calls "turn" and the
other man turns the glass; when The
sand has run out the man with the
glass calls "stop" and the man at
Inc line grabs it. The number OF
knots which have run out in the
thirty seconds shows the number OF
nautical miles the ship is travelling
n one hour. This operation is what
uivcs the name of "kno," to a nauti-
cal or sea mile. A knot is 6OS6.7
feet.
OF course observations arc the
most accurate way of obloining the
correct position of the ship but the
often prevents the taking
pf observations and dead reckoning
,,,,et he used. In dead reckoning