Tips for Keeping Good Watch
Old Fussbudgit, L. Francis Herreshoff, said that the tick of a well-regulated ship’s clock was the comforting and companionable heartbeat of a boat’s cabin. The pulsed, double-chiming of a striking ship’s clock is a clue to the significance that sailors have always given to pacing their hours, even before mechanical clocks went to sea. In the 1400s, portable clocks were gimcrack affairs for which bluewater sailors had little use. Instead, sailormen declared local noon by the local apex of the sun, and measured their day with reliable sand-glasses, half an hour at a time. Sailors lived “four on and four off,” but one of their watches was “dogged,” tamped down to a pair of two-hour watches. These “dog watches” advanced the crew’s duties around the clock and varied the daily rhythm, so that no members of the crew were left serving the graveyard watch—midnight to 4 a.m.—throughout the voyage.
To keep good watch is to recognize that at certain specified times, you are responsible for the boat and its crew. You stand your watch at the edge of the boat’s needs and performance. It’s a time-hallowed responsibility to the vessel, your shipmates, and yourself. A wise skipper will break up any voyage, even a long day’s sail, into “watches,” or shifts. Why?