[krisoft]

> 'knots' is actually a measure of speed

Absolutely right. My first interpretation of that "something like 70 knots out at sea" was that it is the purported limit speed over which they must lower their keel. But that interpretation would be... improbable to say the least.

70 knots (~130 km/h, ~80 m/h) is ridiculously fast for a sailing ship.

I just checked and the fastest ever instantaneous speed reported by a sailing ship is lower than 70 knots. (68.33 knots to be precise)

[Theodores]

I felt that I had misspoke with 'knots'! I only know miles, but miles are a land thing and I knew they used something else on the water. Should have checked sources!