Sunday Washington globe., 1902-05-11
THE MAN-O-WAR'S BELL
VARIOUS USES TO WHICH 1T isl
PUT ABOARD SHIP.

''Strlke eight bellSI' shouted the Of
ficer of the deck on one Of the warships
a few days ago, and tnen one Of
the women visitors Remarked: .Ohl
this is charming! Have you ever heard
the chimes on a navy shipy The man
escort, one of the full of knowledge
Of nautical knowledge kind. responded:
"Oh, yes; I've been a frequent visitor
to the ships, for know so many Of the
officers, and the chimes are rung beau
tifully. But they don't have them on
all the ships" At that instant 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 had simply looked in
quiringly into one anOther's faces.
But the "chimes" were not referred to.
Eight bells" does not mean that
ship has that number of bells, but 1t is
a nautical term for the hour. The nau-
teal day begins and ends at noon,
when 'eight bells" Is struck. as 1t Is
also at 4 o'clock, s O'Clock and at mid.
night. The bell is struck half hourly,
one stroke being added each half hour,
until eight is reached, when the count
begins again. And if one is asked
the time on bOaro q navy ship the
response would be so many bells and
not the hour. The bell Is of ordinary
size only, but 1t has a sharp tone, and
is hung just forward or abaft the fore
mast The captains orderly usually
watches the clock and reports to the
officer Of the deck what hour II Is in
number of bells, who then orders the
bell struck. But at o'clock In the
morning this rule is varied. the orderly
reporting to the officer Of the deck,
'Eight bells, sirp' when the officer re-
plies, Report to the captain eight
bells and chronometers wound" The
captain then responds, VERY we'll;
make it So" which the orderly reports
to the officer Of the deck, who COM
mands the messenger 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 the "eight bells" is not
struck until the navigator has corrected
the clock, either by his MONDAY sight
for position Of the ship when at sea
or from his chronometer. II with a
feet or at naval station the bell must
not be struck until that Of the senior
officer sounds, and the messenger
stands by the bell, with elapper in
hand, and as soon as the dag officers
bell begins to strike, the bells on the
other vessels are struck When there
is a large heet 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 to s o'clock in the
evening. In these hours the bell strikes
every half hour till O'clock, and then
at $50 one bell is struck, and so on to
/ three bells, at 7.30 o'clock; but eight
bells are sounded at 8 o'clock. Tradi-
| ton gives this reason for this custom:
Before the British naval 'mutinies of
1897 the bells of the ships were struck
as in other nayies; But in one Of those
mutinies the signal agreed upon was
the stroke of five bells (630 p. M, and
at that hour the mutineers rose to slay
I their officers. Then, when order was
restored throughout the navy, the dog
l 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 "All hands to bury the dead.
and it Is a fire signal, when rung Wig.
Orously, and then the ships crew takes
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 engagement
however for the reason that the crew
! Wis III DgNOAAN EAhANoNAANRNAT eAA AAo
tracted from the fight; in such cases
the fire Is reported to the captain, and
he dispatches an officer with men tC
extinguish it. The bell is also used in
fog, and when a ship Is at anchor
It is struck in threes, with a short In
terval between each set of strokes. II
the use of the bell for these several
purposes no confusion is caused. The
half hour signals are struck In pairs
with n 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 strokes. while
those for a fog are in sets Of three, 0nd
Cor fire they follow each other with
great rapidity. New York Tribune.
His Eye Was a Glass One.
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