Nautical Time

Historically the day was divided into six four hour periods called watches. Each member of the crew was assigned a period where they would be assigned duties or would be "on watch".

Traditionally the watches are named as follows:

0000 - 0400 Mid Watch
0400 - 0800 Morning Watch
0800 - 1200 Forenoon Watch
1200 - 1600 Afternoon Watch
1600 - 1800 First Dog Watch

The reason behind this watch's existence is that in order for the crew to rotate through all the watches it was necessary to split one of the watches in half. This allowed the sailors to stand different watches instead of one team being forced to stand the mid-watch every night.

The choice of time also allows both watches, if there are only two, to eat an evening meal at about the traditional time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_watch

1800 - 2000 Last Dog Watch
2000 - 0000 First Watch

In the summer of 1966 I served as an ordinary seaman aboard the CCGS Stonetown, which was a weather ship assigned to Ocean Station Papa, 50 degrees North, 145 degrees west. On this vessel the Dog watches were eliminated so we stood the same watches for the six week patrol. I was assigned to the 0000 - 0400 and 1200 - 1600 watches.

Many mornings I was reminded of the words of the poem Sea-Fever by John Masefield "And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking."