The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1902-04-13
THE SHIPS BELL.

New York Times.

New York Times.
Strike eight bells" shouted the officer of
the deck on one of the warships few days
ago, and then one of the women visitors re-
marked oh this is charming Have you
ever heard the chimes on a navy ship? The
man escort, one of the full-of-nautical-
knowledge kind, responded: 'Oh, yes; We
been a frequent visitor 10 the ships, for L
know so many of the officers, and the
chimes are rung beautifully. But they don [
have them on all of the ships At that In
slant the boy to whom the order had been
given made eight strokes on the ships bell,
and then all was silent, even the group OF
visitors, who simply looked inquiringly into
each others faces. But the chimes were
not referred to.
Eight bells" does not mean that a ship
has this number of bells, but il is a nautical
term for the hour. The nautical day begins
and ends at noon, when "eight bells is
struck, it is also at o'clock. s o'clock
and at midnight. The bell is struck half
hourly, one stroke being added for each
half-hour. until eight is reached when the
count begins again. And If one is asked the
time on board of a navy ship the response
would be so many bells and not the hour.
The bell is of ordinary size only, but il has
a sharp tone, and is hung just forward or
abaft the foremost. The captains orderly
usually watches the clock and reports to
the officer of the deck what hour il is in
number of bells. who then orders the bell
struck. But at s o'clock i'm the morning this
rule is varied, the orderly reporting to the
officer of the deck, Eight bells sir" when
eight bells and chronometers wound" The
captain then responds, VERY well: make IL
So, which the orderly reports TO the officer
OF the deck VINO commands the messenger
boy OF the watch. Strike eight bells" But
if the captain should chance 10 remain mum
and not say, Make it So" no one would
hear the bell strike eight, and the nautical
day would be thrown out of joint
At noon the Eight bells is not struck
until the navigator has corrected the clock,
either by his MONDAY sight for position of
81 WI % al or from lie oh m
eter. If with a fleet or at a naval station,
the bell must not be struck until that of
the senior officer sounds, and the messen-
ser STANDS by the bell, with clapper III
hand, and as soon as the flag officers bell
begins to strike the bells on the other YES
sells are struck. When there is "A large
fleet lying close together the effect is in
terestinS and agreeable. and one might
imagine that chimes were being rung.
Every navy in the world except England
follows the same custom, and England
only varies at the dog watch from TO
s O'Clock in the evening. In these hours
the bell strikes every half-hOur till 8
o'clock, and then at $50 one bell Is struck.
and on to three bells, at 1.30 o'clock
but eight bells are sounded at o'clock.
Tradition gives this reason for this Gus
tom: Before the British naval mutnies OF
1891 the bells Of the ships were struck as in
other navies; but in one of those mutinies
the signal agreed upon by the mutineers
was the stroke OF five bells $3.50 p. M B..
and that hour the mutineers rose to say
stored throughout the navy the dog -watch
system of bells was adopted. to allay SUI
perstitiOn.
But the ships bell has other duties than
that of keeping the time. 1t tolls on Sun
day mornings for the services of the chap
lain or his substitute: also TO call ''all
hands TO bury the dead and il is fire
signal when il is rung vigorously, and then
the ships crew take the positions 10 which
they have been assigned the first day
each has been detailed to the ship The
bell is not used as a fire signal In an en-
gagement, however. for the reason that
the crew might become panic stricken and
distracted from the fight I'm such cases the
fire is reported 10 the captain, and ne dis
patches an officer with men to extinguish
it, The bell is also used in fog and when
the ship is at anchor il is struck in threes.
with a short interval between each set OF
strokes. In the use OF the bell for these
several purposes no confusion Is caused
The half-hour signals are struck in pairs
with a couple Of seconds between each
and If an odd number is 10 be sounded the
single stroke comes last. The tolling for
church is by slow strokes. while those for
fog are I'm sets of three. and for fire
they follow each other with great rapidly