cable's length

American  

Or cable length

noun

1. a nautical unit of length equivalent to 720 feet (219 meters) in the U.S. Navy and 608 feet (185 meters) in the British Navy.

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Etymology

Origin of cable's length

First recorded in 1545–55

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cable's length

The two whalers pulled almost neck and neck at half a dozen boats' lengths apart, while at a good cable's length astern, and quite invisible to the rest, followed the gigs.

From The Fight for Constantinople A Story of the Gallipoli Peninsula by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)

Steering straight for the Detroit, a vessel a fourth larger than his own, he gave orders to have the schooners that lagged behind close up within half cable's length.

From The Second War with England, Vol. 1 of 2 by Headley, Joel Tyler

Smartly handled, she worked her way in through the narrow, land-locked entrance; then luffing up into the wind, she dropped anchor within a cable's length of the Golden Hope.

From The Quest of the 'Golden Hope' A Seventeenth Century Story of Adventure by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)

The "Cacafuego" was swiftly overtaken, and when within a cable's length a voice hailed her to put her head into the wind.

From School Reading by Grades Sixth Year by Baldwin, James

By this time the dhow, which was coming up "hand over fist", was about a cable's length astern.

From The Wireless Officer by Westerman, Percy F. (Percy Francis)