The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-05-27
MAN-OF-WAR BELLS.
Largest One Aboard n Ship is on the
New York.
From tho Boston Journal.

From tho Boston Journal
Uncle Sans b1g cruiser New York
has bell on board weighing 600
pounds, which is in all probability the
largest bell ever put aboard a ship for
use at sea.
The ships bell is the mariners
clock. The nautical day begins and
ends at noon, when eight bells are
struck The bell is struck half-hourly
day and night, one stroke being added
for each half hour until eight is
reached, when the count begins at one
bell.
In the United States navy the ships
bell hangs usually under the forecastle,
or Just forward Of the foremast. The
captains orderly keeps the time and
reports to the officer Of the deck the
hour in terms of bells" The officer
of the deck then bids the messenger
of the watch strike the bell. There is
somewhat more formality at eight
bells than at other times. for then the
hour is reported to the captain and
the bell not struck until he has said,
Make 1t So" Here is the routine on
board Of a man-of-war at s o'clock in
the morning: The orderly says to the
The officer Of the deck replies, Report
to the captain eight bells and chronom-
eters wound" The orderly then goes
to the captain and says: Eight bells
and the chronometers wound, sir" The
captain replies, Very well, make it
So" The orderly goes to the officer of
the deck and says: Make it So. sir"
The officer of the deck says to the
,F J., oh trik ai oil
bells" and if everybody has been
prompt the messenger strikes eight
bells at exactly $ a. m.
AS matter of fact, the report, eight
bells and chronomctcrs wound" is in
tended as a check on the navigating
officer. To him the ships chronometers
are confided. There are three chron-
oneters and a hack" on each man-of-
war. The hack is simply a portable
chronometer that may be taken ashore
if need be. The others, once affixed to
their place in the navigator's room or
their chart room are never removed.
The navigator knows his chronometer
even better than he knows his ship
mates. The error and the rate of the
ChronOmeter as compared with Green
wich mean time are accurately known,
order the others may be depended up
on. Besides the chronometers, there
are ship clocks, which are kept up to
local time. Some of the ships clocks
are now made to strike the bells. but
the old routine is retained, except that
the clock does the work of the messen-
ger Whether or not the clock would
stop should the captain at s o'clock
al lrn Gn' iG a IN n
yet to be determined.
They do things rather differently in
the British navy. on the English men,
of-war there is a curious deviation
from the American naval method of
indicating the hour. BEFORE the Brit
ish naval mutinies Of 1877 the bells were
struck on board British men-oG-war
just as they were and are on board the
ships of other nations, But in one Of
those mutinies the signal agreed upon
by mutineers was the stroke of tive
bells, $50 p. IN. When that signal came
the mutineers rose to slav their Off
GERS. In the fight that followed the
officers upon one ship at least were
driven over the starboard side, and the
mutincers for time were in possess
sion of the ship. When order was re-
stored throughout the navy, the stroke
Of five bells at $50 p. m in the second
dog watch was dropped from its
place i'm sequence, though five bells are
retained at $50 a. m. The stroke at
$50 y. m in the British navy, is one
bell, at : two bells, at 7.30 three bells,
but at it is eight bells. From that
hour to $50 y. m. the sequence of
strokes is the same as in the United
States NAVY