Dear laurelv-ga;
Please read this and let me know what you think:
As I mentioned, it is probably impossible to trace your clock back to
one particular ship because there were literally thousands of these
clocks, and dozens of them on military ships alone ? and that?s not
even taking into account civilian, foreign, mercenary or merchant
marine ships of the time.
Since bakelite doesn?t go back all that far, I suspect that your clock
can be dated to about 1938 (when Westclock and Seth Thomas began
installing a compliment of 64 maritime clocks aboard aircraft carriers
a compliment of 77 Seth Thomas® nautical clocks aboard most
battleships), and about 1955 when bakelite products began seeing a
commercial decline.
THE CLOCK DEPOT
http://www.theclockdepot.com/seth-thomas-clocks.html
Here you will see an example of one white-on-black Seth Thomas
nautical clock known as a ?bell clock?. This particular example is
made of a combination of heavy black pot metal, aluminum and Bakelite,
and is valued at about US$1000:
ANTIQUES OF THE SEA
http://www.antiquesofthesea.com/0694_seth_black.html
Earlier versions of this clock (1870?s-1930?s) did not have an
internal bell and were commonly made of brass. The bell external was
mounted below the clock face and was noted for ringing quite loudly.
As clocks became more affordable and brass was phased out as the
primary material from which the clocks were made, a particularly loud
bell was no longer necessary as there were clocks with internal bells
posted all over a ship (as I mentioned, WWII ships came standard with
nearly 100 clocks onboard).
A & A GAINES ANTIQUES
1870?s http://www.aagaines.com/clocks/swheel.html
ANTIQUE WALL CLOCK PRICE GUIDE
1910?s http://www.antiqueclockspriceguide.com/pages/clock9565.php
These clocks kept the time of the ship, which in naval jargon is
measured by ?bells?. Traditionally, a 24-hour day is divided into
seven watches. These are: midnight to 4 a.m. [0000-0400], the
mid-watch; 4 to 8 a.m. [0400-0800], morning watch; 8 a.m. to noon
[0800-1200], forenoon watch; noon to 4 p.m. [1200-1600], afternoon
watch; 4 to 6 p.m. [1600-1800] first dog watch; 6 to 8 p.m.
[1800-2000], second dog watch; and, 8 p.m. to midnight [2000-2400],
evening watch. The half hours of the watch are marked by the striking
the bell an appropriate number of times.
So, as you can see, each watch is four hours in length. One bell is
struck after the first half-hour has passed, two bells after one hour
has passed, three bells after an hour and a half, four bells after two
hours, and so forth up to eight bells are struck at the completion of
the four hours. Completing a watch with no incidents to report was
what spawned the legendary cry, "Eight bells and all is well."
The practice of keeping time by means of bells dates back even further
than ships clocks. In earlier times it was the responsibility of the
ships ?boy? to keep track of the time using an hourglass, and to
literally hand ring a bell on the ship?s deck to announce the arrival
of each hour.
Again, I know of no means of tracing a clock back to one particular
ship, but if this information answers your question about the general
background of the clock please let me know so I can repost it.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher |
