Bell

Bells are traditionally use to indicate time aboard a ship.

Instead of being struck hourly (with the number of rings indicating the hour), the bells are struck every half hour of a 4 hour watch.

when ringing the bell, the rings are grouped into pairs to make counting easier.

We use a simplified ships bell system to indicate the time (see right)

At the begining of our evening meeting the time is 7:30pm, so 7 bells are struck.

At the end of the evening it is 9:30pm, so we strike 3 bells.