How do I convert UK Nautical Miles to UK Nautical Leagues?
A UK nautical league is three UK nautical miles, ie 18,240 feet or about 5.56 kilometers. The nautical mile itself is one minute of latitude along any meridian.
Divide UK nautical miles by 3, since a league is three of them – 15 UK nautical miles is 5 UK nautical leagues.
What is a UK Nautical Mile?
The UK nautical mile was based on one minute of latitude, ie 1/60th of a degree. The Earth is not a perfect sphere, so a minute of latitude varies slightly with latitude, which is why a fixed length had to be chosen.
The UK nautical mile, also called the Admiralty mile, was fixed at 6,080 feet, which is 1,853.184 meters. That is 1.184 meters longer than the international nautical mile of 1,852 meters (6,076.11549 feet), which the UK adopted in 1970.
What is a UK nautical league?
A UK nautical league is three UK nautical miles, ie 18,240 feet or 5,559.552 meters, which rounds to 5.56 kilometers. The international nautical league is slightly shorter at 5,556 meters.
Don't confuse it with the land league, which is three statute miles. The nautical league is three nautical miles, about 3.45 statute miles, so it's roughly 15% longer.
Britain's territorial waters once reached one marine league – three nautical miles – from the coast. The limit has been 12 nautical miles, or four leagues, since 1987.