Fathom was upset and rose to the surface. A "shot", one of the forged lengths of chain joined by shackles to form an anchor cable, was usually 15 fathoms long (). A "shackle", a length of cable or chain equal to 12.5 fathoms or 75 feet. In 1949, the British navy redefined the shackle to be 15 fathoms. In Finland, fathom ("syli") is sometimes, albeit seldom, used as a maritime unit, of a nautical mile and of cable length. It is customary, when burying the dead, to bury the coffin at least to a depth of a fathom, or "six feet
Fathom Five (novel) Fathom Five (novel) Fathom Five is a 1979 novel by Robert Westall, and is the sequel to "The Machine Gunners" (1975). The book combines elements of spy story with the rites of a passage of teenage life. The characters are now older than in "The Machine Gunners", and the themes are appropriate to their age. The transition from boy to man is one of the central aspects of the novel, and Chas is ultimately faced with a decision a mature adult would find daunting. While "The Machine Gunners" tends to focus on the bombing and fear of invasion in 1941,