# Explain old-time naval timekeeping (Aubrey/Maturin) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 15, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536 "2015-12-15T15:28:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2015, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/81 "2015-12-23T21:05:07Z")
Casdave check the OP. This isn’t a question about the modern navy and what you say is just plain wrong about the Napoleonic-era British navy and we are in GQ ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/82 "2015-12-24T05:50:28Z")
Nothing to add, except that a high school friend of mine is a HUGE fan of the Aubrey/Maturin books but, oddly enough, has no patience for the lengthy descriptions of ropes, sails, manuevering, etc. He told me he just says to himself, “Now they are sailing the ship very skillfully” and skips ahead. ---
**Author:** ![botsgotme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@botsgotme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/botsgotme)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2015, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/83 "2015-12-24T06:45:29Z")
A major concern on old time sailing ships was fire-the lined were coated in pitch, the whole ship was highly flammable. Did each ship have a firefighting unit? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/84 "2015-12-25T04:36:00Z")
Just about everyone was trained in damage control of all kinds, including putting out fires. There wasn’t a “firefighting unit,” as such. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 25, 2015, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/85 "2015-12-25T17:27:37Z")
> [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](#): > > Nothing to add, except that a high school friend of mine is a HUGE fan of the Aubrey/Maturin books but, oddly enough, has no patience for the lengthy descriptions of ropes, sails, manuevering, etc. He told me he just says to himself, “Now they are sailing the ship very skillfully” and skips ahead. That’s exactly what I do. Once in awhile I’ll labor through one of the sailing/battle descriptions, with the aid of _A Sea of Words_, but in the end it isn’t worth the translating effort. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/86 "2015-12-27T08:41:30Z")
> [@Snnipe\_70E](#): > > I I remember right the ship’s time is changed at 0200. So if you are on a mid watch it is 3 or 5 hours long. Mid watch 0000-0400. Is that why Daylight Saving time flips over at 2am? ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/87 "2015-12-27T12:18:00Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > Is that why Daylight Saving time flips over at 2am? No. At one time it used to be midnight, but someone decided that 2am was less disruptive. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/88 "2015-12-27T15:47:50Z")
O’Brian wrote a slim companion book for the A-M series detailing day-to-day life in the Royal Navy. I don’t recall the name of it (I read a library copy) but it starts out with a young man becoming a midshipman and details his and the sailors’ life on board – how the watches work, what they ate and when, etc. And speaking of middies, in the movie _Master and Commander_, there’s a short scene of Aubrey teaching several of them how to fix local noon with a sextant. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/89 "2015-12-29T17:03:01Z")
> [@Ispolkom](#): > > Dude, you wrote, “grog was always watered.” If you want to make a pedantic correction, it helps to also be correct. > > Watered whiskey is diluted whiskey. > > Watered rum is grog (if you add lemon juice and perhaps sugar). > > Watered grog is rum further diluted with extra water. > > To write, as you did “grog was always watered” means that the sailors were always getting 4- or 5- or 6-water grog, which simply isn’t the case, at least in the Aubrey-Mathurin novels. Arg. This is like arguing about whether toast is toasted. No, you don’t toast the toast, it’s already toasted! If you toasted it again it would be ruined! You don’t toast toast, you toast bread! If someone says toast is always toasted, they are correct. The toasting occurs in the past, not the future. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2015, 11:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/90 "2015-12-29T23:26:18Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > And speaking of middies, in the movie _Master and Commander_, there’s a short scene of Aubrey teaching several of them how to fix local noon with a sextant. I was just channel surfing the other day and caught a few minutes of _Master and Commander_. The ship was in some weather and it looked like the crew were hoisting a new yard up one of the masts. Someone said something about if they couldn’t sail through the weather they’d sail around it, and then an order was given to the helm to turn south. WTF? You don’t just steer wherever you want without also trimming the sails, and that’s going to take a lot of hands, and orders, to man the braces. Plus, I don’t know if you want to be doing all that sail handling when there are men and equipment up in the rigging installing a new yard. For a series that’s so praised for its authenticity, that scene didn’t play out as I would expect. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2015, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536/91 "2015-12-30T01:33:28Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > For a series that’s so praised for its authenticity, that scene didn’t play out as I would expect. It’s a film, dammit! 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/explain-old-time-naval-timekeeping-aubrey-maturin/740536.md?page=4)