The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-10-20
ABOUT THE SHIPS BELL
Various Uses to Which 1t Is Put
How It Tells the Time Of Day.
New Ynrk Tribune.l


Eight bells does not mean that
ship has that number of bells, but II IS
nautical term for the hour. the nau-
teal day begins and ends at noon,
when Eight bells" Is struck. as II Is
also at 4 O'Clock. s O'Clock, and al mid
night. The bell is struck half-hourly,
one stroke being added for each half
hour, again. And if one is asked The
time on board a navy ship the response
would be so many bells. not the hour.
The bell Is of ordinary size only, but
II has sharp tone and Is hung Just
forward or abaft the foremast. Inc
captains orderly usually watches the
clock and reports to the officer OF the
deck what hour 1t is in number OF
bells, who then orders the bell struck
But at 8 o'clock in the morning this
rule is varied, the orderly reporting 10
the officer of the deck. Eight bells.
sir" when the officer replies: Report
to the captain eight bells. and chrono-
meters wound" The captain then re-
spends: VERY well: make IL so"
which the orderly reports to the officer
of the deck, who commands the mes
senger boy of the watch, Strike eight
bells" But if the captain should
chance TO 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 tbs eight bells is not
struck until the navigator has cor
rected the clock, either by his monday
sight for position OF the ship when at
sea or from his chronometer. If with
feet or at a naval station, the bell
must not be struck until that OF the
1fafc of he
ger stands by the bell with clapper in
hand, and as soon as the flag officers
bell begins 10 strike, the bells on the
other vessels are struck When there
is large fleet lying close together,
the effect Is interesting and agreeable,
and one might imagine that chimes
were being rung.
Every navy in the world except Eng
land follows the same custom, and
England only varies at the dog
watch" from 10 O'Clock in the
evening. In these hours the bell strikes
every half hour till o'clock and then
at $3.50 one bell Is struck, and so on to
three bells at 7:30 o'clock, but eight
bells are sounded at O'Clock. Ira
dition gives this reason for this GUS
TOM. Before the British naval mu-
tinies Of 1921 the bells of the ships were
struck as i'm other navies, but in one of
those mutinies the signal agreed upon
by the mutineers was the stroke OF
five bells $3.50 D. M, and at that hour
the mutineers rose to STAY their of
ficers. Then, when order was restored
throughout the navy. the dOg-Watch
system of bells was adopted to allay
superstition.
But the ships bell has other duties
than that of keeping the time. 1t tolls
On Sunday mornings for the services of
the chaplain or his substitute; also to
call ''ali hands to bury the dead" and
II is a fire signal, when il is rung Wig
orously. and then the ships crew take
the positions to which they have been
assigned on the first day each has been
detailed TO the ship. The bell is not
used as a fire signal in an engage
ment, however, for the reason that the
crew might become panic-stricken and
distracted from the fight; in such cases
the fire is reported TO the captain. and
he dispatches 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 in
terval 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 I'm pairs.
with a couple of seconds between each,
and If an odd number is to be sounded
the single stroke comes last. The toll
ing for church is by slow process,
while those for a fog are in sets Of
three, and for a fire they follow each
other with great rapidity.