Chelsea 4 1/2" silvered dial, hinged bezel, 8-day movement, ships bell. S/N 23972, base and ball feet model. Boyd Park was a jewelry store here in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Here are some interesting items that I have discovered about these types of clocks.

Bells For Timekeeping

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. The process was repeated for the succeeding watches. This age-old practice of sounding the bell on the 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


Ships Bell Strike

Ship’s bell strike is based on “watches” onboard ship of 4 hours each. A “new watch” starts at NOON, 4 P.M., 8 P.M., MIDNIGHT, 4 A.M., and 8 A.M. The end of a “watch and start of a “new watch” is marked by the bell being struck 8 times. A half hour later, the bell is struck once, with an additional strike each half hour until the end of the “watch”. Then the cycle starts again. The bells are struck in pairs, that is, the first two bells are struck close together followed by a pause, then the next two, etc. The table below shows the pattern of the bells from 4 o'clock to 8 o'clock:

Time Bells Struck
4:00 xx xx xx xx
4:30 x
5:00 xx
5:30 xx x
6:00 xx xx
6:30 xx xx x
7:00 xx xx xx

Phil Dellinger
NAWCC# 157070
IHC Life Member (L12)

Jim Dyson has an excellant web site on Chelsea clocks that can be found at www.chelseaclockmuseum.com

William Mittelstadt

A great book to read about math and navigation and accurate timekeeping at sea is Carry On Mr. Bowditch. It makes you appreciate the difficulties before accurate timekeeping. It is a true story about an indentured boy who is brilliant in mathematics. The book is meant for older children, but some of the descriptions of travelling through a fog with only a compass and a watch are pretty good.

Tom Seymour
NAWCC #41293
IHC #104
IHC Exec.V.P.