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I lost track of the number of times I crossed the Pacific and Indian
Oceans while in the USN in the 80s and 90s.  The ship(s) always kept
zone time in order to provide a normal work schedule (meals, sleep,
work, flight ops, etc) for the officers and crew.  As to the watches,
depending on "where in the world" the ship was located depended on how
many watch sections were "formed" by the Senior Watch Officer.  Underway
in the Pacific, we typically had 3 watch sections formed, but in a
designated combat zone we usually went to 2 sections known as "port and
starboard".   The Commanding Officer (CO) did have some discretion as to
the number of watch sections to be formed up.  The ships navigator made
a recommendation to the CO as to the day to move ships clocks forward or
back.   As I recall, we always moved ships clock one hour at "midnight".
  While this sounds like one section was getting the brunt of the "clock
changes" in reality the ship was in 3 sections most of the time during
the "cruise" so the midwatch was never the same section, unless we were
in 2 sections.

As mentioned earlier the ship always served "midrats" which was the 4th
meal of the day.

Scott

On 1/4/2017 12:18 PM, Doug MacPherson wrote:
> In the early 80's I crossed the Atlantic twice on U.S. Navy Destroyer.  We
> always kept zone time.  As we passed between zones, the navigator would
> make a recommendation to the captain on when to move the clocks.
> As has been mentioned in previous posts, the primary reason for this was
> keeping the routine workings of the ship, meals, sleep, work on deck etc.
> in synch with the sun.  I have no idea how watch standing and zone time are
> now conducted on the more modern ships of today in the U.S. Navy.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Doug
>
> On Wed, Jan 4, 2017 at 6:33 AM, Gary LaPook  wrote:
>
>> U.S. Navy Regulation, Article 1031 issued in 1920 required Navy vessels to
>> keep time based on
>> the standard time zones. Paragraphs 6e and 8 however gave the commander
>> the authority to set
>> his clocks in a non-standard way (but he must note in the logbook the
>> exact "hours, minutes and
>> seconds" needed to convert ship's time to GMT as the Z.D.) when near a
>> shore that kept
>> non-standard time or under circumstances that "may render desirable a
>> departure from the regular
>> method."
>>
>> gl
>>
>> 
>> 
>>
>
>
>

   

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