In the morning, at dawn, we raised anchor and drifted down with a rainy sky. 3 The length of the watches was measured using an hourglass filled with sand. Each watch consisted of 8 half-hour glasses, marked by bells.glasses into the forenoon we dropped anchor at 2 ½ 1 fathom = 6 feet (170 cm)fathoms of sticky ground. We had a heavy, stormy and rainy sky with thunder, lightning and rain from then on. At night the sky was overcast, and remained so till morning.