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[Mr Gav]

Reading further down the list on Stemo`s link there is a better explanation of the difference between a boat and a ship, ships lean out when turning and boats lean in to the turn, here`s a quote from one of the contributors.  "The two vessels react differently when turning, one swings into the curve of the motion, the other out of the curve. This is the Royal Navy definiton of the two vessel types."

[zirk]

I thought the difference was more to do with a ship had sails or something along those lines, I work on subs but that's about all I can say, I don't know how people go away on them for months with little contact with family and no idea where they are (except for about 3 people on board)

Close, the original definition was, a Ship needed to have a least 3 fully rigged Masts (the sail type) to be called a Ship, other wise it was called a Boat, so Ships were generally bigger than Boats, and hence why people say Ships carry boats not the other way around was mainly to do with there size.

Other ongoing versions are, Ship are Ocean going only Boats can be both, Ships have more than 1 deck / enclosed decks, Sailing Ships and Boats heels differently in a turn, Captain of a Ship needs to be accredited, not true for a Boat, Ship has a Bridge, and so on, etc, etc.

So what about Space and Astronauts, when was the last time you heard someone going to the Mars in a Spaceboat.
 

[Mister Rog]

For further reading/watching, the excellent drama 'Das Boot'.

A fascinating documentary about the footwear manufacturing industry of Northampton. 

HaHa !

There are/were two versions of Das Boot, TV version and Movie/Film version. Both are good. TV version is really long, but probably a bit better, more absorbing as it goes on.

[BazaJT]

some very interesting answers,thanks people.My reasoning behind thinking it would be from at or near top of sail instead of say the keel,was that if the boat was taken to a depth of 30ft there'd still be an awful lot of it still poking above the surface!

[Mister Rog]

some very interesting answers,thanks people.My reasoning behind thinking it would be from at or near top of sail instead of say the keel,was that if the boat was taken to a depth of 30ft there'd still be an awful lot of it still poking above the surface!

Hmmm "30ft" ?

Do they still use feet in the Navy, or have they entered the 21st Century and use metres ? Just curious

[BazaJT]

You could very well be right about them using metres instead of feet these days,I was just going on the film which was a WW2 one so they were still on feet which is handy as that's what I still use!

[Andy B]

some very interesting answers,thanks people.My reasoning behind thinking it would be from at or near top of sail instead of say the keel,was that if the boat was taken to a depth of 30ft there'd still be an awful lot of it still poking above the surface!

Hmmm "30ft" ?

Do they still use feet in the Navy, or have they entered the 21st Century and use metres ? Just curious

What's wrong with feet  .... speed is still in knots, so why not 

I work from time to time with a Belgium lad. He refuses to even aknowledge imperial units .... obviously we wind him up when he quotes so many hundredth of a mm clearance, to which we'll reply with something along the lines of ''is that xx thousanths of an inch?''  And then he quoted his weight in stones    His reply was that he'd been to a lot of weight watcher meetings! 

[Varche]

A lot more imperial measurements in everyday use than people realise all over the world.

Here in Spain you buy pipe for water in inches.

 I read somewhere that Hubble telescope had an upgrade and the "engineers" used a modern thread until they found out the old threads were something like BSF.

Then there are tyres. Most car wheels diameter are in inches.

Back on the subs. I am sure I saw a programme that explained that the Trident Subs use a sixteen hour day . 8 hours on and 8 off. That must take some adjusting to once back on dry land. 

[Andy B]

.....
I am sure I saw a programme that explained that the Trident Subs use a sixteen hour day . 8 hours on and 8 off. That must take some adjusting to once back on dry land.

I worked '1 in 4' which was a very common pattern, occassionally some would work '1 in 3'
Day split into 8 hour watches ......
First watch ...... 2000 to Midnight
Middle watch ...... Midnight to 0400
Morning watch ...... 0400 to 0800
Forenoon watch ...... 0800 to 1200
Afternoon watch ..... 1200 to 1600
First Dog ....... 1600 to 1800
Last Dog ....... 1800 to 2000

So 1 in 4 would be Forenoon, First, Afternoon, Middle, First Dog, Morning, Last Dog. Dog watches are only 2 hours otherwise you'd do the same 3 x 8 hours watches. In reality, different ships would either swap the dogs so you did the Last Dog instead of the First so you had a better lie in after you'd been to bed to following afternoon because you'd been on watch from midnight to 0400 or they both Dog watches togther after the morning watch.

[Mister Rog]

some very interesting answers,thanks people.My reasoning behind thinking it would be from at or near top of sail instead of say the keel,was that if the boat was taken to a depth of 30ft there'd still be an awful lot of it still poking above the surface!

Hmmm "30ft" ?

Do they still use feet in the Navy, or have they entered the 21st Century and use metres ? Just curious

What's wrong with feet  .... speed is still in knots, so why not 

I work from time to time with a Belgium lad. He refuses to even aknowledge imperial units .... obviously we wind him up when he quotes so many hundredth of a mm clearance, to which we'll reply with something along the lines of ''is that xx thousanths of an inch?''  And then he quoted his weight in stones    His reply was that he'd been to a lot of weight watcher meetings! 

The Devil in me is tempted to ask why anyone would still use such oddball systems as feet and Inches etc
 . . . or pounds and ounces etc
 . . . or pints and gallons etc

But this would run the risk of starting an arguement, so I'm NOT going to ask          

[TD]

some very interesting answers,thanks people.My reasoning behind thinking it would be from at or near top of sail instead of say the keel,was that if the boat was taken to a depth of 30ft there'd still be an awful lot of it still poking above the surface!

Hmmm "30ft" ?

Do they still use feet in the Navy, or have they entered the 21st Century and use metres ? Just curious

What's wrong with feet  .... speed is still in knots, so why not 

I work from time to time with a Belgium lad. He refuses to even aknowledge imperial units .... obviously we wind him up when he quotes so many hundredth of a mm clearance, to which we'll reply with something along the lines of ''is that xx thousanths of an inch?''  And then he quoted his weight in stones    His reply was that he'd been to a lot of weight watcher meetings! 

The Devil in me is tempted to ask why anyone would still use such oddball systems as feet and Inches etc
 . . . or pounds and ounces etc
 . . . or pints and gallons etc

But this would run the risk of starting an arguement, so I'm NOT going to ask          

What do you ask for when you walk into a pub and want some beer from a tap? 

[Mister Rog]

some very interesting answers,thanks people.My reasoning behind thinking it would be from at or near top of sail instead of say the keel,was that if the boat was taken to a depth of 30ft there'd still be an awful lot of it still poking above the surface!

Hmmm "30ft" ?

Do they still use feet in the Navy, or have they entered the 21st Century and use metres ? Just curious

What's wrong with feet  .... speed is still in knots, so why not 

I work from time to time with a Belgium lad. He refuses to even aknowledge imperial units .... obviously we wind him up when he quotes so many hundredth of a mm clearance, to which we'll reply with something along the lines of ''is that xx thousanths of an inch?''  And then he quoted his weight in stones    His reply was that he'd been to a lot of weight watcher meetings! 

The Devil in me is tempted to ask why anyone would still use such oddball systems as feet and Inches etc
 . . . or pounds and ounces etc
 . . . or pints and gallons etc

But this would run the risk of starting an arguement, so I'm NOT going to ask          

What do you ask for when you walk into a pub and want some beer from a tap? 

"Half a litre of your finest ale please, my man "          

But like I said, I'm NOT asking     

[STEMO]

As long as you say what you want, and people understand you, what's the problem?
I can visualise a mile, a pint, a foot but I'd have trouble with a kilometre or 10cm or even a litre. It just works for me.

[Migv6 le Frog Fan]

An old boss of mine (many years ago), was something of a heroic submariner in ww2.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ww2peopleswar/stories/77/a3237077.shtml

Fickin awful businessman though. 

[Mister Rog]

As long as you say what you want, and people understand you, what's the problem?
I can visualise a mile, a pint, a foot but I'd have trouble with a kilometre or 10cm or even a litre. It just works for me.

No problem whatsoever. That's why people like me don't actually make a big thing of it.

We went decimal on our currency in the 1970's and we've all got used to it. It was pretty much essential in order to be in synch with the whole of the rest of the world.

The other things, weights, volumes, lengths are not so easy. I have a conspirancy theory. Kids for quite a long time, have been taught in non imperial measures. In many instances it is a legal requirement for prices to be shown in metric measures IE: £ per Kg or part thereof. However, it is still quite common to see £ per Pound or whatever, but nobody gets prosecuted, no big headlines. I believe that the powers that be are just waiting for all the old farts to die off, and metric will just gradually become the norm. I won't say watch this space, as many including me probably won't be here to watch it 

I agree. As long as what you say is understood, then that's fine. But things will move on.

In medical equipment measurements there is is bizarre situation for example where a special commonly used wire may be .035 X 100 cms. So, .035 of an inch in diameter by 100 cms in length. Totally nuts. A metric proportion of an imperial diameter measure by a metric length.