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A ship's bell is used to indicate the time aboard a ship and hence to regulate the sailors' duty watches. The bell itself is usually made of brass or bronze and normally has the ship's name engraved or cast on it. ==Timing of duty periods== Unlike civil clock bells, the strikes of the bell do not accord to the number of the hour. Instead, there are eight bells, one for each half-hour of a four-hour watch. In the age of sailing, watches were timed with a 30-minute hourglass. Bells would be struck every time the glass was turned, and in a pattern of pairs for easier counting, with any odd bells at the end of the sequence. The classical system was: :† British usage after the Nore mutiny :‡ Before the introduction of time zones, noon was not struck by the glass, but when the captain or officer of the deck confirmed local noon by the sun, using a sextant. At midnight on New Year's Eve sixteen bells would be struck – eight bells for the old year and eight bells for the new. Most of the crew of a ship would be divided up into between two and four groups called watches. Each watch would take its turn with the essential activities of manning the helm, navigating, trimming sails, and keeping a lookout. The hours between 16:00 and 20:00 are so arranged because that watch (the "dog watch") was divided into two. The odd number of watches aimed to give each man a different watch each day. It also allows the entire crew of a vessel to eat an evening meal, the normal time being at 1700 with First Dog watchmen eating at 1800.〔 Some "ship's bell" clocks use a simpler system: "Eight bells" can also be a way of saying that a sailor's watch is over, for instance, in his or her obituary, as a nautical euphemism for "finished". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Ship's bell」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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