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Time Keeping The sea-day was divided into watches of four
hour duration. Except for the dog watches of
The most critical role of the bell in pre- which there were two 1600-1800 & 1800-
modern time was timekeeping. All men on 2000.
board kept four-hour watches, and the bell
would tell them how much of their watch had Hence, starting at 0800 – 8 bells
been completed.

Time was indicated by striking the bell every
half an hour. The number of strokes denoted
that has elapsed since the watch began.

Thus, one bell was sounded 30 minutes after
the hours of four, eight and twelve; two at the
hours of one, five and nine, eight and twelve,
the hours marking the change of watch. Bells
were sounded in pairs and with vim and verve
expected during the silent hours between
Pipe-down and Hands-call.

The time would then resume to one bell at
The time during this period was denoted by
sounding little bells, which could only be 1230 and so on. For example, 1530 would be
heard in the immediate vicinity. seven bells in the afternoon.
Celebration
Changing of Watch

A naval tradition has it that the youngest
Before the introduction of a reliable clock to
naval vessels, the passage of time was marked member of the ship’s company on New
by striking a bell with paired clapper blows Year’s Eve strikes the bell sixteen times,
very time a half-hour sandglass was turned. hence “ring out the old, ring in the new”

DOG WATCH

The reason behind this watch's existence is
that, in order for the crew to rotate through all
the watches, it was necessary to split one of
the watches in half, to create an odd number
of watches in a ship's day. This allowed the
sailors to stand different watches instead of
one team being forced to stand the mid-watch
every night. The choice of time also allows
both watches, if there are only two, to eat an
evening meal at about the traditional time.

The striking of eight bells signalled the
changing of the watch.