how many feet in a fathom?
The fathom is now defined as 6 feet and is an Imperial and US customary unit of length used for water depth at sea. Earlier the fathom had varied between 5ft and 7ft in length with merchant vessels often using a fathom of 5Â½ft, warships using a fathom of about 6ft and fishing vessels sometimes using a fathom of 7ft.