Convert length and distance units — meters, feet, inches, kilometers, miles, light years and more.
| Unit | Name | Value |
|---|---|---|
| 0.001 chain | 0.011 ftm | |
| 0.01 chain | 0.11 ftm | |
| 0.1 chain | 1.1 ftm | |
| 1 chain | 11 ftm | |
| 5 chain | 55 ftm | |
| 10 chain | 110 ftm | |
| 50 chain | 550 ftm | |
| 100 chain | 1100 ftm | |
| 1000 chain | 11000 ftm |
Multiply the number of Chains by 11 to get Fathoms. Formula: ftm = chain × 11. Example: 10 chain × 11 = 110 ftm. To reverse, divide Fathoms by 11 to get Chains.
| Chain (chain) | Fathom (ftm) |
|---|---|
| 0.001 chain | 0.011 ftm |
| 0.01 chain | 0.11 ftm |
| 0.1 chain | 1.1 ftm |
| 0.5 chain | 5.5 ftm |
| 1 chain | 11 ftm |
| 2 chain | 22 ftm |
| 5 chain | 55 ftm |
| 10 chain | 110 ftm |
| 20 chain | 220 ftm |
| 50 chain | 550 ftm |
| 100 chain | 1100 ftm |
| 250 chain | 2750 ftm |
| 500 chain | 5500 ftm |
| 1000 chain | 11000 ftm |
| 10000 chain | 110000 ftm |
To convert Chain to Fathom, multiply by 11. Example: 10 chain = 110 ftm
To convert Fathom back to Chain, divide by 11 (multiply by 0.0909091). Use the swap button above.
Start with 100 Chains = 1100 ftm as your reference point. Scale up or down from there.
Coastal boundary disputes involving both maritime law (fathoms for water depth) and land law (chains for shore measurement) require conversion between the two legacy imperial units in legal documentation.
Victorian-era harbour and dock construction used both chains (for land layout) and fathoms (for water depth). Engineers restoring or extending these structures convert between the units using original survey records.
Coastal fisheries managers working with historic catch records and territorial water boundaries encounter both fathoms and chains in legacy documents requiring cross-unit conversion for modern database systems.
1 chain = 11 fathoms exactly — a clean ratio that teachers use to illustrate how imperial units were often designed with convenient integer relationships to simplify field calculations before metrication.
Maritime historians researching coastal fortifications and harbour defences encounter chains in land survey records and fathoms in admiralty charts — conversion needed when correlating both sources.
Comprehensive unit converters include chain-to-fathom for researchers and historians working with legacy British imperial documents where both units appear across land and maritime records.
The Chain is a unit of Length measurement (symbol: chain). 1 chain = 11 ftm. Used in scientific and practical Length measurement applications.
The Fathom is a unit of Length measurement (symbol: ftm). It is part of an internationally recognised measurement system used alongside the Chain.
Edmund Gunter invented the surveyor's chain in 1620. His design — 100 links totalling exactly 66 feet — was brilliantly chosen: 10 chains × 10 chains = 1 acre, making area calculation trivially simple in the field. 80 chains = 1 mile, 10 chains = 1 furlong. The chain became standard across the British Empire and is written into American law — the US Public Land Survey System still divides land using chains and links.
The fathom derives from the Old English 'fæthm', meaning the span of outstretched arms — roughly 6 feet or 1.8 metres. It was the primary depth measurement unit used by mariners for millennia, recorded in the Bible and used by ancient Greeks. The word 'fathom' also entered English as a verb meaning to understand something deeply — from the idea of plumbing the depths. Despite metrication, fathoms remain on admiralty charts and in nautical tradition worldwide.
Common use: Chain to Fathom conversion is needed when working with international standards, scientific publications, or reference materials that use different unit systems for Length measurement.