NavList:

John

You wrote: I'd still like to know exactly what German word the device's abbreviation stands for, Ktm. = K--------tauschenmesser, tauschen = dip and messer = meter.

I think the identification of the device resolved now!  "Dipmeter" indeed!  Sorry, I can't help you with the K.

As Frank correctly points out, you most assuredly accounted for the height of eye in your days with the fleet.  Height of eye is the independent variable in the dip of the horizon table.  The resultant dip being the dependent variable.

I would think that even if the training had been better impressed upon you, the height of eye would have been a near constant for you.  Here's why.  You most likely took sextant observations on the same deck each time.  With only modest variation in the elevation of that deck above sea level (function of the load of the ship, for example fuel), the table lookup to yield the dip would have been invariant.  More so particularly at higher elevations above sea level associated with the bridge of a ship.  Slight changes in elevation do not affect the dip outcome at higher height of eye. 

So after multiple successive reductions, in which the height of eye did not change the dip, the dip value entered into the reduction worksheet became rote, further abstracting what little remained of that part of your training. 

Brad