THE ROMANCE OF NAVIGATION [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.]
SIR,—In your issue of March 29th,- which has just reached me, your reviewer writes with reference to the above : " It is odd, by the way, that Captain Whall uses the solecism knotsan hour.' "
As one who started sea life in sail at the end of 1872, .1 Should feel obliged if your reviewer would explain why Captain Whall is guilty of a solecism in describing the speed of a vessel as " knots an hour." Is not the expression " knots an hour " a survival of the days of sail, before patent logs came into existence, when the log was generally hove every two hours day and night, especially at night ? The .old-fashioned log reel was -used, _on which was wound a line marked with knots which as to distance between the knots _bore the same ratio to a mile of 6080 ft. as a sand glass .(like an egg boiler), usually fourteen or twenty-eight seconds, bore to an hour. Hence the name " knot." On page 64 of the book referred to below this is fully explained. It • was thus we measured the speed of the vessel in " knots an hour." In a book on Modern Navigation, by W. Hall, B.A., R.N., published in 1904, the following definitions are given : Definition, page 7. A knot is a speed of one mile per hour. Definition, page 16. The speed of a ship is measured in sea-miles per hour, or knots.
1 Sea-mile = 6080 ft.
1 Statute mile = 5280 ft.
South Africa.
[The definitions quoted obviously confirm the wordi used in our review.—En. Spectator.]
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