Beyondships2
  • What's New
  • Beyondships Ship Profiles
  • Cruise Travel News Items
  • Beyondships Cruise FAQs
    • FAQ Pods and Azipods
    • FAQ Best cruise line.
    • FAQ What was the first cruise ship
    • FAQ bulbous bow
    • FAQ What is the largest cruise ship
    • FAQ - Captain's role
    • FAQ cruise itineraries
    • FAQ Checking Baggage
    • FAQ Gross tonnage
    • FAQ Ship size and crowding
    • FAQ Motion And Stateroom Location
    • FAQ - Pilots
    • FAQ Top heavy cruise ships
    • FAQ Ocean Liners and Cruise Ships
    • FAQ Stabilizers
    • FAQ - Who owns the various cruise lines?
    • FAQ Passenger Emergency Procedures
    • FAQ Europe Without Flying
    • FAQ Cruise ship fuel mileage
    • FAQ shore excursions
  • Cruise interviews
  • Mini-profiles Index
  • Cruise Destinations
  • Cruise Ship Profiles
  • Cruise Ship Tours
  • Notices
  • Beyondships Art
  • Carnival Corp Sea Home
  • Caribbean Open For Business
  • Experiencing the noro virus
  • Caribbean report 2017
  • Privacy Policy
  • Caribbean One Year After
  • National Geographic Endurance Unveiled
  • Four New Cruise Ships
  • Cruise line lapel pins
  • NCL auctions NFTs
  • Cruise news notes and commentary
  • FAQ sea trials
  • FAQ what are knots
  • FAQ what is the Jones Act
  • Cruise news notes and commentary June 2022
  • Cruise news notes and commentary July 2022
 

What are knots?

 
As with other types of ships, the speed of a cruise ship is measured in knots. One knot is equal to one nautical mile per hour. Thus, if a ship is sailing at 20 knots, it means the ship will traverse 20 nautical miles in an hour. (A nautical mile is equal to one degree of latitude, i.e. 6,076 feet; 1.151 land miles or 1,852 metres).


Translating this into speeds and distance on land, a knot is equivalent to 1.15078 miles per hour. (1.852 km per hour). Thus, if you want to compare the speed of a ship to the speed of your car, multiply the number of knots times 1.15078 to get the ship's miles per hour.


Knots have been used as a means of calculating the speed of ships since the days of sailing ships. In those days, a line with physical knots tied into it at evenly spaced intervals would be attached to a piece of wood. The piece of wood would than be tossed from the stern of the ship. One sailor would count the number of knots that ran through his hand as the line played out. Another sailor with an hour glass would time the operation.


Most modern cruise ships have a top speed of approximately 23 knots. The ocean liner Queen Mary 2 has done approximately 30 knots. However, the SS United States reportedly had a top speed of over 40 knots.          
Queen Mary 2 ship
Queen Mary 2 has sailed at nearly 30 knots.
Tweet
 CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE CRUISE SHIP FAQ PAGE
 
Cruise ship FAQs - - What are knots?
Beyondships LLC
Notices
​
Privacy Policy 
Beyondships.com
​(Cruise ship profiles, pictorials, reviews and interviews).
Beyondships Cruise Destinations
(Travel articles about and profiles of destinations). ​​​
Beyondships Cruise Ship Pictorials and Reviews
(Photos, videos and reviews of cruise ships)
Beyondships Cruise Ship Pictorials and Reviews
(Photos, videos and reviews of cruise ships)
BeyondshipsArt.com
(Museum profiles, Art reviews, and Original art)