The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1902-11-26

| The bell is of ordinary size only, but
ii 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 1t 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 of
ficer of the deck: Eight bells. sir"
when the officer replies: Report to
the captain eight bells, and chronom-
eters wound. The captain then re-
spends: VERY well; make it 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 1t
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 cor
rected the clock. either by his noon
day sight for position of the ship when
at sea or from his chronometer. If
with fleet or at naval station the bell
must not be struck until that of the
senior officer sounds. and the messen-
ger stands by the bell with clapper in
hand and as soon as the flag officers
bell begins to 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 4 to 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 1880 O'Clock;
but eight bells are sounded at s
o'clock. Tradition gives this reason
for this custom: Before the British
naval mutinies of 1897 the bells Of the
ships were struck as in other navies.
but in one of these mutinies the signal
agreed upon by the mutineers was the
stroke of five bells $3.50 p. m) and at
that hour the mutineers arose to STAY
their officers. 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 "All hands to bury the dead,
and ii is a fire signal, when it is rung
vigorously, 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 en-
gagement 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 cap
| tain. and he dispatches an officer with
men to extinguish 1t. The bell is also
used in fog, and when the ship is at
anchor it 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 be-
| tween each, and If an odd number Is
to be sounded the single stroke comes
last. The tolling for church is by
slow process, while those for a foe
are in sets of three, and for fire they
follow each other with great rapidity