Posted by Adrian on September 18, 2003 at 21:01:35 from 81.86.88.198 user Adrian.
In Reply to: Re: Marking anchor chain posted by Robert Dilley on September 18, 2003 at 18:52:18:
According to EF Knight in Sailing a hand lead was 25 fathoms long, generally marked as follows
2 fathoms - Leather with 2 ends, 3 - Leather with 3 ends, 5 - White Calico,7 - Red bunting, 10 - Leather with a hole through it, 13 - Blue serge, 15- White calico, 17 - Red bunting, 20 - Strand with 2 knots
The different materials were used so that one could feel in the dark what the mark was.
These depths are called marks, the intervening fathoms are called deeps.
So 5 fathoms is called out as 'By the mark five', whilst 6 fathoms is called out as 'By the deep six'
Not that you would be yelling out anything as you were anchoring, but you could use these marks in a similar manner