Brass Ships Bells

The ship's clock strikes in a half-hour sequence based on the four-hour ship's watch system. The end of the first half hour is marked by one bell chime, the end of the first hour is two bells, the end of the first hour and a half is three bell chimes and so on. The end of a four-hour watch is marked by eight bell chimes. Eight bells are struck six times in a 24-hour period: at noon, 4pm, 8pm, midnight, 4am, and 8am.

Brass bells have always been associated with their vessels, and many sailors consider the sound of the bell to be the soul of the ship. These beautiful brass bells produce a distinctive chime that will sweep you out to sea.

Learn more about Ships Bells in our Nautical Article Gallery.

For whom these bells toll

For 73 years bronze-alloy bells have hung in the tower of Lowell House at Harvard University. They once belonged to the St. Danilov Monastery in Moscow. An American industrialist bought them alter the Russian Revolution, then donated them to Harvard. Now floe monastery, reopened in the 1980s, wants the bells back. It won't be easy: the tower that houses the bells was literally built around them (one is housed separately in the business school); there are 18 bells weighing a total of 25 tons (Chronicle of Higher Education, October 10).