# Question regarding ship's bells (British Navy, Nelson Era) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197 "2013-08-02T22:23:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197/1 "2013-08-02T22:23:15Z")
I recently found a nice little app for my iPhone that serves two glorious purposes: [ol] [li]To educate this landlubber about the schedule of bells and watches used aboard 18th and 19th Century ships of the line; and[/li][li]To annoy people around me.[/li][/ol] The app, simply called “Ship’s Bells”, causes one’s iPhone to mark the passage of each half-hour with the requisite number of chimes as per naval use. It’s not splashy and doesn’t have a lot of options, but its biggest selling point – as far as I was concerned – is that one could select the British system, which breaks up the four hour block from 16:00 to 20:00 into two separate “dog watches.” Being a _Master & Commander_ geek, this represents a total nerdgasm. The one fly in the ointment – or, more appropriately, weevil in the hardtack – comes at the end of the last dog watch. At 20:00 the app chimes a total of 8 times. Seeing as how this is fourth segment of a two hour watch, should it not be only 4 bells? I mean, it seems a bit odd that the sequence of bells for the two dog watches should be 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 3, 8. My rudimentary research (read: too busy/lazy to search beyond Wikipedia) suggests that 4 bells at 20:00 should be expected. Any old salts or armchair Jack Tars know the answer? ---
**Author:** ![ThelmaLou](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thelmalou/32/390_2.png) [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2013, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197/2 "2013-08-02T23:20:17Z")
My WAG is so that you’ll know you’re at the end of a whole cycle, i.e., to distinguish between a.m. and p.m.? ---
**Author:** ![runcible\_spoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9fc29f/32.png) [@runcible\_spoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/runcible_spoon)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197/3 "2013-08-03T00:19:53Z")
Looking through Wikipedia, it appears the originally the last dog watch had 5-6-7-8 bells. But after the Nore Mutiny, which used five bells as the signal for the uprising, the navy stopped ringing five bells, and switched to 1-2-3-8; not sure why 8 was kept but not 6 or 7, but I’d guess that keeping the end of the watch is more important than the middle. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2013, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197/4 "2013-08-03T12:48:59Z")
> [@](#): > > When a ship is underway at sea it is necessary to man the essential operating stations such as the navigation bridge and engine room 24 hours a day. To accomplish this, the ship’s crew is divided into “watches” which rotate being on duty or “on watch” in shifts usually four hours long. > > In the sailing ship era before the development of mechanical clocks the passage of each 4-hour watch was marked with an hourglass which ran 30 minutes. Each half hour, when the glass was turned over, the ship’s bell was struck. Over time a traditional pattern of striking the bell in couplets, or pairs of strikes, developed which added a strike each half hour, thus: > > Using an example of a watch beginning at noon: > Noon 8 bells (A new watch comes on duty) > 12:30 1 bell > 1:00 2 bells > 1:30 3 bells > 2:00 4 bells > 2:30 5 bells > 3:00 6 bells > 3:30 7 bells > 4:00 8 bells (The watchstanders are relieved by the next watch and go below to rest) > 4:30 1 bell (The pattern starts over) > > A person standing watch could tell by listening to the bells where he was in his watch and how long it would be before the next watch came on deck. Also, if the strike as an even number of bells, it was on the hour. If an odd number of bells, that it was the half hour, and which half hour it was. As mechanical clocks were developed this bell pattern was transferred into ship’s bell clocks. I think that this system still exists today. As an O’Brian fan you will be well aware that the Naval day starts at midday. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197/5 "2013-08-05T13:27:10Z")
I have this question running in two different forums, and the responses seem pretty unanimous. Eight bells in the last dog watch it is. My ignorance has been defeated. On \*that \*topic, anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [August 5, 2013, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-regarding-ships-bells-british-navy-nelson-era/665197/6 "2013-08-05T13:29:23Z")
> [@runcible\_spoon](#): > > Looking through Wikipedia, it appears the originally the last dog watch had 5-6-7-8 bells. But after the Nore Mutiny, which used five bells as the signal for the uprising, the navy stopped ringing five bells, and switched to 1-2-3-8; not sure why 8 was kept but not 6 or 7, but I’d guess that keeping the end of the watch is more important than the middle. I noted that the system had changed after the Nore Mutiny, but I hadn’t delved far enough as to learn the reasons why. Now it makes sense.