One of the finest traditions of the sea is
timekeeping by striking a bell each half hour. Work aboard ship
was normally divided into four hour shifts or "watches", with the
watch being changed at 12, 4 and 8 o'clock. With each, new watch,
one bell was struck at the end of the first half hour. Each half
hour thereafter, an additional bell was added to the sequence,
until 8 bells indicated the end of the four hour watch. The crew
on duty were thus kept advised of the passage of time.
In the early days, the bell was struck by hand.
Later developments in clock making made possible automatic
sounding of the proper bells at 30 minute intervals. Table 1 shows the bell sequence and equivalent hours.
