UK Nautical Leagues
Abbreviation/Symbol:
UK NL
Unit of:
Worldwide use:
The UK Nautical League is three UK Nautical Miles, which is 5,559.552 meters or about 5.56 kilometers.
In feet a UK nautical league is 18,240ft, three Admiralty miles of 6,080ft each. That is about 3.45 statute miles.
The league belongs to old texts rather than modern navigation, where distances at sea are given in nautical miles.
Definition:
The UK Nautical League is three nautical miles – the 6,080ft Admiralty mile in the UK version – or about 5.56km.
Modern charts use nautical miles and kilometers, and the nautical league is found only in historical writing.
Origin:
Early navigators judged distance at sea by eye and by landmarks. The league, three nautical miles or about 5.56km, was fixed once longer voyages needed a standard.
The nautical league, also known as the sea league, was one-twentieth of a degree of latitude, so 20 of them covered a degree.
Since a degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles, multiply leagues by three to get nautical miles – a run of 100 leagues is 300 nautical miles, or 5 degrees of latitude.
No modern navigation uses the nautical league, though it still appears in old charts and nautical writing.
Common references:
One UK nautical league is 3 UK nautical miles
Usage context:
A UK nautical league is 3 UK nautical miles, which makes it 18,240 feet or 5,559.552 meters. It is a historical sea measurement.
Charts and logs now use nautical miles, and the league has dropped out of use. It fits neatly into latitude, though: a degree of latitude is 60 nautical miles, so 20 nautical leagues.