Knot

[civilwartalk]

knot

A unit of measure used to express the speed of a ship in nautical miles per hour. One international nautical mile is defined as 6,076.1155 feet, or approx. 1.15 statute (land) miles.

[rivrrat]

2,000 yards

[aggie80]

A nautical mile is 1 minute of arc of the circumference of the Earth. This distance is 6,076.1155 feet.

Most navigation problems use 2000 yards as it is easier to calculate with and for most celestrial navigation that is more than adequate. When the measurements are put on the chart, you use the scale of the longitude on the chart to plot, as it is consistant, while the latitude scale varies.