I Found Something Also........ But What Is It ?

[Cosine26]

There is another use for a “monkey’s fist – taking soundings. When I served on cruisers during WWII, every ship had a station called the “chains”. This was a small platform on each side of the prow that hung over the water and was surrounded by a chain. When entering or leaving port, an experienced sailor from the deck force served in the “chains” and took soundings by heaving the “lead” or “monkey’s fist. The “monkey’s fist” was affixed to a ‘heaving line’ that had marks showing the distance from the “Monkey’s fist “to the mark. At the one fathom point there was no mark, at the two fathom mark there was a “mark” consisting of two leather strips, at the five fathom mark there was a red rag, at the 10 fathom position there was a piece of leather with a hole in it , etc. The sailor would wind up, heave the “lead” and rapidly reel it in until it was vertical at which time he would note where the water level struck the heaving line. If the water level fell at the 5 fathom mark ((a white rag) he would call “By the Mark Fiver”. If the water level fell where there was no mark (such as six fathoms) he would estimate and call “By the deep six”. We always had men in the “chains” even though we had a fathometer. A good “chain” man was worth his weight in cold. For non-nautically inclined, a fathom is six feet.