The original 14.4 meter distance between knots in the rope, divided by a 30-second timer, was equivalent to a speed of 1.85 kilometers per hour. Ergo, 1 knot equals 1 nautical mile per hour.

For example, a ship that is sailing at 10 knots, will do 10 nautical miles in an hour. Seventeenth-century mariners starting measuring the speed of their ships by using a common log.

The average speed of most modern cruise ships is just 20 knots or approximately 23 miles per hour. This may not seem much, but this is enough for a ship to travel 480 nautical miles or 550 miles ...

ROCKLAND, Me., June 9.—Highly gratified with the top speed showing of 20.01 knots made in her standardization tests to-day the builders and officers of the battleship Michigan were confident to ...

The original 14.4 meter distance between knots in the rope, divided by a 30-second timer, was equivalent to a speed of 1.85 kilometers per hour. Ergo, 1 knot equals 1 nautical mile per hour.