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Keeping Up Appearances vocabulary
2 nautical terms (boats, equipment, etc.)
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eight bells
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tags: [nautical]
► definition
Definition:Unlike civil clock bells, the strikes of a ship's 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.text from Wikipedia, licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealikesound file: by Benboncan, license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
► uses
Uses:
Richard: Change? It took you an hour and a half to decide to wear that!
Hyacinth: I think it's more for afternoons, you should have told me it was more for afternoons; or should I say, "eight bells".
BBC. Keeping Up Appearances: Sea Fever (1993)
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"There they are, down there every night at eight bells, praying for fair winds—when they know as well as I do that this is the only ship going east this time of the year, but there's a thousand coming west—what's a fair wind for us is a head wind to them—the Almighty's blowing a fair wind for a thousand vessels, and this tribe wants him to turn it clear around so as to accommodate one—and she a steamship at that! It ain't good sense, it ain't good reason, it ain't good Christianity, it ain't common human charity. Avast with such nonsense!"
Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad (1869)
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Avast the chorus! Eight bells there! d'ye hear, bell-boy? Strike the bell eight, thou Pip! thou blackling! and let me call the watch. I've the sort of mouth for that—the hogshead mouth. So, so, (thrusts his head down the scuttle,) Star-bo-l-e-e-n-s, a-h-o-y! Eight bells there below! Tumble up!
Herman Melville. Moby Dick
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