Meaning fifty fathoms? You ask me what that mean? That’s a good one. Fifty fathoms, my, my. That’s deep, you know. That is real deep.
A fathom, that’s how them sailor fellas measure how deep the water is. They use it all the time, you see. Like, how far down it is to the bottom of the sea. It is a unit of length, you see. A fathom is six feet. Yeah, that is about… one point eight meters? I don’t know much about them meters. I always use feet. Six feet is a fathom, you remember that.
So, fifty fathoms, you just times that six by fifty. That’s a whole lot of feet! A lot, I tell ya! That’s, let me see…carry the two…three hundred feet. Three hundred feet is how deep is fifty fathoms. That is a long way down, ain’t it? Three hundred feet! That’s like, I don’t know…a whole lot of them tall fellas standing on each other’s shoulders.
- One fathom is six feet.
- Fifty fathoms is three hundred feet.
- That’s a long, long way down, I tell ya!
Now, why you wanna know about fifty fathoms? You planning on diving down that deep? You better be careful, now. It gets dark down there. Real dark. And cold! You gotta have them special suits and all that, to go that deep. Not like when I was a girl, no sir. We just jumped in the ol’ swimming hole. That water wasn’t fifty fathoms, I can tell you that much! It wasn’t even one fathom, I bet. But we had fun. We didn’t need no fancy suits.
Fifty fathoms, that’s for them explorer fellas. Them ones with the big boats and all the fancy gear. They go down there looking for…I don’t know what. Old shipwrecks, maybe. Or them strange fish that live way down deep where it’s always dark. They got all sorts of critters down there you wouldn’t believe. Glow in the dark, some of ’em! Ain’t that something?
But you know, “fathom” ain’t just about water. No, sir. You can use it another way, too. You can say you can’t “fathom” something, meaning you just can’t understand it. Like, “I can’t fathom why he done that.” See? It’s like, your brain can’t get to the bottom of it. It’s too deep to understand. Just like fifty fathoms is too deep for most folks to go.
Like, I can’t fathom why folks are always in such a hurry these days. Running here, running there. Never taking the time to just sit and be. Back in my day, we had time. Time to sit on the porch and watch the world go by. Time to talk to your neighbors. Time to just…be. Now it’s all rush, rush, rush. I just can’t fathom it, I really can’t.
Or take them young people with their faces always stuck in them little phones. Walking around, bumping into things, not even looking where they’re going. I can’t fathom what’s so interesting on that little screen. They don’t talk, they don’t play, they just stare at that screen. It ain’t natural, I tell ya. That is something I just can’t fathom.
Fathom that, if you can! So that’s another way to use that word. Not just for the deep water, but for when something is just too deep for your brain to get a hold of. It’s like it is out of reach, you know?
So, fifty fathoms, that’s a long way down in the water, and it’s also a long way to understanding something that’s just too complicated. Two different meanings, but both about depth, you see? One is about how deep the water is, and the other is about how deep something is in your mind. It is a good word. Fathom. I like that word.
Well, I reckon I’ve talked your ear off about fathoms. You probably know more about fathoms now than you ever wanted to! But that’s alright. It’s good to learn new things. Even if it’s just about how deep the water is or how hard it is to understand something. And remember, if you ever hear someone say they can’t fathom something, you just think about that deep, deep water, and you’ll understand what they mean.
