<p>Today I learnt: Ship&#x2019;s Bells</p>
<p>Ahoy thar maties. Eight bells and all&#x2019;s well! (Spoken with an abysmal
pirate accent).</p>
<p>Alright, enough of me poorly impersonating a pirate. As you may or
may not know, based on comments in one or more of my previous episodes,
I dabble a bit in clock repair. Specifically, mechanical clocks, powered
by springs or gravity. My grandfather was a clockmaker, and I remember
sitting, as still and quietly as I could, in his shop watching him work.
I was fascinated, but I could not ask any questions, make any noise, or
touch anything at risk of being told to leave. So, I learned very
little, but it did plant a seed deep inside me which would flourish many
years after my grandfather passed away.</p>
<p>I plan to do a series about mechanical clocks and some of my
experiences with clock repair in upcoming months. This has been
simmering on the back burner for quite a while as I debated if it would
really be of interest to hackers. My mind creates stories of listeners
shouting &#x201C;Oh for crying out loud! First six episodes about plumbing and
now clocks? Get to something interesting!&#x201D; However, I am pressing on. If
you like this episode and want more in the series, please leave a
comment. If you would prefer other types of content on HPR, then skip
the rest of this episode and record one more suited to your desires or
detailing what you would like to hear and why.</p>
<p>Also, you will probably hear the ticking (and maybe striking) of
various different clocks in the background of this recording. My new
home office space is also the home for close to a dozen clocks in
various states of repair. It is challenging to remove their sounds from
the recording, and given the subject matter of this series, I am not
even going to try to remove them.</p>
<p>Back to the topic. A couple of years ago, I purchased a very
inexpensive box of assorted clocks and clock parts from a local seller.
These were in various states of disrepair. One item in the advertisement
for this box immediately caught my eye. It was a brass Urgos brand
&#x201C;Ship&#x2019;s Bell&#x201D; clock. This timepiece was literally dripping with oil, but
seemed to be intact, and I started working on it. In a later podcast, I
will describe my approach to items like this and what is involved in
initially cleaning and evaluating them. Due to life challenges, it took
me over a year to get this clock reassembled and working.</p>
<p>With this clock, I learned that ship&#x2019;s bells do not strike a normal
hour count like traditional striking clocks. Instead, their strike
directly relates to the time of an historic ship&#x2019;s watch schedule.
According to &#x201C;The Ship&#x2019;s Bell&#x201D;, an article from Naval History and
Heritage Command (<a
href="https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/the-ship-s-bell.html"
class="uri">https://www.history.navy.mil/browse-by-topic/heritage/customs-and-traditions0/the-ship-s-bell.html</a>),
early shipboard timekeeping was done through the use of a half-hour
glass. The job for one of the ship&#x2019;s boys was to watch the glass, turn
it when it ran out, and then strike the ship&#x2019;s bell so all onboard would
be aware of the time every half hour.</p>
<p>On sea vessels, various persons on duty &#x201C;Keep watch&#x201D; at, or around,
their station. These include the &#x201C;Lookout&#x201D; who was constantly &#x201C;watching&#x201D;
all around the ship to ensure there was no danger and to alert of any
sightings of land or other vessels. (<a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchkeeping"
class="uri">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchkeeping</a> )</p>
<p>The ship&#x2019;s bell had many other uses beyond timekeeping, and those are
described in detail in the previously mentioned Naval History article.
With all this bell ringing, patterns were developed. For timekeeping,
this basically broke down to a specific pattern of incrementing strikes
every half hour, throughout the ship&#x2019;s watch. Each watch is a 4 hour
long shift, the first five of which are broken down as follows:</p>
<ul>
<li>First Watch, 8pm to Midnight (20:00 to 00:00 hours)</li>
<li>Middle Watch, Midnight to 4am (00:00 to 04:00 hours)</li>
<li>Morning Watch, 4am to 8am (04:00 to 08:00 hours)</li>
<li>Forenoon Watch, 8am to Noon (08:00 to 12:00 hours)</li>
<li>Afternoon Watch, Noon to 4pm (12:00 to 16:00 hours)</li>
</ul>
<p>The remaining 4 hours are broken up into two &#x201C;Dog Watches&#x201D;, but those
are outside the scope of this discussion. You can learn more about these
details in Tom Burden&#x2019;s article titled &#x201C;Ship&#x2019;s Bell Time&#x201D; and found at
<a href="https://www.westmarine.com/west-advisor/Ships-Bell-Time.html"
class="uri">https://www.westmarine.com/west-advisor/Ships-Bell-Time.html</a></p>
<p>Ship&#x2019;s bell strikes increment every half hour. At the beginning/end
of a 4-hour watch, the bell strikes 8 times, in groups of 2 strikes with
a tiny pause in between. Here is an example from my (now working) ship&#x2019;s
bell clock.</p>
<pre><code>{ding}{ding} pause {ding}{ding} pause {ding}{ding} pause {ding}{ding} pause</code></pre>
<p>One half hour into the watch, the ship&#x2019;s bell will sound a single
strike</p>
<p>One hour into the watch, the ship&#x2019;s bell will sound two strikes</p>
<p>An hour and an half into the watch, the ship&#x2019;s bell will sound three
strikes in the following pattern:</p>
<pre><code>{ding}{ding} {pause} {ding}</code></pre>
<p>At the two hour mark, there will be four strikes, following that same
pattern:</p>
<pre><code>{ding}{ding} {pause} {ding}{ding}</code></pre>
<p>Etc&#x2026; I will not list all of these, but you get the idea. Because the
strikes are paired in groups of two, an even number of strikes denotes
the top of the hour, and it is easy to count the number of pairs (1, 2,
3, or 4). If the bells end in a single strike (odd number total), you
know it is the bottom of the hour.</p>
<p>It seems strange at first, but it can be easily learned in a short
amount of time. And now, the phrase I used at the beginning of this
podcast, &#x201C;Eight bells and all&#x2019;s well&#x201D; should make sense. Eight bells
indicates the end of the watch, and an individual on watch duty is
stating that their shift is finished and there was nothing to
report.</p>
<p>I hope that you have enjoyed this episode. Your feedback is
encouraged, through comments and especially by recording your own HPR
episode.</p>
<p>Have an awesome day!</p>
