Ships Time

	A SHIPS CLOCK Just one style! ... A much prized momento for a naval veteran. Especially if it comes from a ship the veteran served on. A deck log identifies a ship's location and movements daily. If the ship is underway, its latitude and longitude are to be entered three times each day in blocks provided for the purpose. Deck logs are not narratives, and do not describe or explain a ship's operations. These clocks are used to make the accurate entries into the log .
An article written in 1898: .... The captain's orderly keeps the time on board a man-of-war...he reports to the officer of the deck the time in "bells"... At 8 o'clock in the morning the orderly reports to the officer of the deck "Eight bells, sir". The officer replies, "Report to the captain eight bells and chronometers wound." The orderly reports to the captain, "Eight bells and chronometers wound, sir," to which the captain replies, "Very well, make it so." The orderly returns to the officer of the deck and says" "Make it so, sir," and the officer of the deck says to the messenger of the watch: "Strike eight bells." If every one has been prompt, eight bells has been struck at exactly 8 a.m. The report, "Eight bells and chronometers wound," is intended as a check upon the navigating officer, to whom the chronometers are confided... Every half-hour the bell is struck until noon, when an observation is taken, the formula repeated and eight bells again struck, and the position of the ship on the chart defined. Before the advent of the chronometer time at sea was measured by the trickle of sand through a half - hour glass. One of the ship's boys had the duty of watching the glass and turning it when the sand had run out. When he turned the glass, he struck the bell as a signal that he had performed this vital function. From this ringing of the bell as the glass was turned evolved the tradition of striking the bell once at the end of the first half hour of a four hour watch, twice after the first hour, etc., until eight bells marked the end of the four hour watch.	Deck Log Marine Chronometer
The process was repeated for the succeeding watches. This age-old practice of sounding the bell on the hour and half hour has its place in the nuclear and missile oriented United States Navy at the dawn of the Twenty-First Century, regulating daily routine, just as it did on our historic vessels under sail in the late Eighteenth Century.
Bells on Ships National Watch and Clock Museum Typical Clock Face - displaying watch times.