half-anhour

Updated: May 5, 2025

On the top of the mast is fixed a port-fire, calculated to burn, I think, twenty minutes, or half-anhour; this is ignited most ingeniously by the same process which lets the buoy down into the water. So that a man falling overboard at night is directed to the buoy by the blaze on the top of its pole or mast, and the boat sent to rescue him also knows in what direction to pull.

Basil Hall - The Lieutenant and Commander : Being Autobigraphical Sketches of His Own Career, from Fragments of Voyages and Travels