Setting the Clock: the Planet way, the navy way, and the w..

Greetings and Salutations

Something which came to mind from somewhere - how do the various
ships, fleets, planets and the like "synchronize" watches. I realize
that in space, it is always dark out, but how are shifts organized?

Let me back up a bit.

I'm assuming that the Royal Navy sets ship clocks to Landing Time when
they are commissioned, and (for sake of argument) then sets the
watches according to that clock. Hence forth, any one on board ship
can look a the clock and know what time it is "back home" (assuming
they live in Landing.) Till they hyper out, and spend some days
(subjective) making traveling to some other base/star system. Where
they emerge from hyper promptly at 0800 on a Monday. Only locally it
is 0123 Tuesday.
So how would you compensate for the "jet lag"? Keep the "regular
watches", and have those who have to deal with dirtsiders switch sleep
schedules? What if your orders are to join the Umpteenth squadron,
who are on a different schedule from planet Dirt? Do we just reset
clocks and calendars to match? Pop back into hyper and wander about
till the clocks match?
But what happens when you return to Manticore and Landing
Coordinated time is now different than what is on the ship
chronometer?

I'm also wondering about the calendar problem - the clock thing is
"trivial" but when you arrive on your "Monday" and it is their
"Wednesday" then what?

I'm not too sure how the various bands might effect time
measurements. Yes, you travel at the same "rate" in Hyper, as you do
in N-Space, but from N-Space, you're traveling much faster. Yeah, you
spend two weeks in hyper getting from point A to point B, but what
does that do to your calendar, which was in sync when you left point A
but where is it at point B?

I knew there had to be a reason for those massive computers in BUPERS
- just to keep track of actual subjective time in grade. Can't have
people claiming their tour is up because they've been gone for four
years, when they've only spend two in the chowline.
--
pyotr filipivich
"Quemadmoeum gladuis neminem occidit, occidentis telum est. "
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, circa 45 AD
(A sword is never a killer, it is a tool in the killer's hands.)

Einstein gets the last laugh.

As a practical matter, all watches are likely done using ship time.
When a vessel enters into an orbit, it will set the shore clock to
local time. All watches are still stood using ship time, but shore
time is used for arranging anything with anyone off of the ship. A
possibility is that vessels working in concert, but away from a local
shore, adopt the flagship's ship time as "shore" time, so that the
ranking officer gets to run the group to his own schedule.
Detachments that leave a group and later return may not have reset
their "shore" time, on departure, but will always have to synch the
shore clock when they get back, from dilation effects.

Using ship time for all watches means that the pay matches the
subjective time worked. The only fiddling done with the ship's clock
is that during any yardwork long enough to notice, it is verified that
it is running at the correct speed (as the ship is at rest with
respect to the yard, and in very close proximity to the yard, even
Einstein allows the two clocks to be compared). No other calibrations
are possible. Ship time is also used for scheduling maintenance.
Ship time and shore time also involve seperate calendars.

Any other synchronization, without instantaneous communications (not
merely faster than light, but instantaneous) is either an
impossibility, or so contrived a setup as not to be useful for more
than a global positioning system. It might be possible to calculate
ways to allow two ships to rendezvous at a point in space via
different routes, but their clocks will not match.