Years to Ship's Watches (yr to watch)
1 year equals 2,191.455 ship's watches exactly.
How to convert years to ship's watches
To convert years to ship's watches, multiply the number of years by 2,191.455. This factor is exact. To go the other way, multiply ship's watches by 0.0004563178345 (rounded).
ship's watches = years × 2,191.455
Example: 10 years = 21,914.55 ship's watches.
Months and years are not constant. This site uses the average Gregorian year of 365.2425 days, so one 'year' converts to 365.2425 days, not 365; use 'common year' for exactly 365 days.
About these units
Year (yr)
The average Gregorian calendar year of 365.2425 days (31,556,952 seconds). A common year has 365 days and a leap year 366.
A year is the Earth's trip around the Sun, but there are several versions. The tropical year, which tracks the seasons, is about 365.2422 days. The sidereal year, measured against the stars, is about 365.2564 days, roughly 20 minutes longer, because the Earth's axis precesses. Calendars must squeeze these into whole days, which is the origin of leap years. English year descends from Old English gear, while Latin annus, the source of annual, comes from a different root.
The Gregorian calendar, introduced by Pope Gregory XIII's bull of 24 February 1582, fixed the problem of Julian drift that had moved the March equinox away from 21 March and upset the date of Easter. Ten days were skipped, so Thursday 4 October was followed by Friday 15 October. Its rule of skipping leap days in century years not divisible by 400 gives a mean year of 365.2425 days, the value this site uses for the year. Britain and its empire switched in 1752 and Russia in 1918. Scientists write the year as a, with the Julian year fixed at 31,557,600 seconds.
1 year = 31,556,952 seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Year; Wikipedia: Gregorian calendar
Ship's Watch (watch)
Four hours, the standard duty period at sea. The 'dog watches' of the evening are split into two hours each.
Naval and merchant crews divide the day into watches so that the ship is never left unattended. A normal watch lasts four hours, and its length is the basis for the figure used here, 14,400 seconds. The traditional scheme described by Wikipedia had five four-hour watches and two two-hour dog watches, named the first, middle, morning, forenoon and afternoon watches, with the afternoon watch ending at 1600.
Splitting the 1600 to 2000 period into a first and second dog watch gives an odd number of watches per day, so each crew member's schedule shifts from day to day, and it also lets everyone eat an evening meal. Time on board is marked with the ship's bell, struck every half hour so that eight bells ends a four-hour watch. Merchant ships typically keep six four-hour watches instead, which makes the pattern consistent.
1 ship's watch = 14,400 seconds (exactly).
Sources: Wikipedia: Watchkeeping; Wikipedia: Ship's bell
Related conversions
- Ship's watches to years (reverse)
- Years to seconds
- Years to minutes
- Years to hours
- Years to days
- Years to weeks
- Years to months
- Years to milliseconds
- Years to microseconds
- Years to nanoseconds
- Years to decades
- Years to centuries
- Years to millennia
- Seconds to ship's watches
- Minutes to ship's watches
- Hours to ship's watches
- Days to ship's watches
- Weeks to ship's watches
- Months to ship's watches
See all time units.