A quarter twain...Huh?
""That night we had the watch until twelve. Now it was an ancient river custom for the two pilots to chat a bit when the watch changed. While the relieving pilot put on his gloves and lit his cigar, his partner, the retiring pilot, would say something like this:
"I judge the upper bar is making down a little at Hale Point; had a quarter twain with the lower lead and mark twain with the other."
"Yes, I thought it was making down a little, last trip. Meet any boats?"
"Met one abreast the head of 21, but she was away over hugging the bar, and I couldn't make her out entirely. I took her for the Sunny South - hadn't any skylights forward of he chimneys."
And so on...""
Quote from the book "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain
Note: A quarter twain is 2 1/4 fathoms (13 1/2 feet). And mark twain is 2 fathoms. And mark three is 3 fathoms.
Note: the discussion is between two pilots aboard a large paddle wheel steamboat in the 1850s-1860s.
