TERMINOLOGY

Bell Metals: Bronze, composed of 80% copper and 20% tin

Foundry: A hot factory where metal is melted to make bells

Campania: A province in Italy where bells were made and bell terminology began

Campanology: The study of bells

Campanile: A bell tower not connected to a church but a free standing structure
i.e Bok Tower Gardens, Lake Wales, FL one of the worlds most beautiful.

Tolling: A single stationary bell struck in slow repetition.

Pealing: Groups of two or more free-swinging bells.

Chimes: A set of seven to twenty two bells arranged in a simple scale played by
hand levers

Carillon: 23 tuned bells arranged in a chromatic sequence played on a console

FAMOUS BELLS

Famous Bells: The Liberty Bell made in 1752 and finally named and recognized as our
national symbol of freedom in 1876. Made by White Chapel Foundry, England.

Big Ben; The most famous bell in London, England

The Millennium Peace Bell; Newport, KY, the largest swinging bell in the US, weighing 33 metric tons. Made by the Paccard Bell Company of France.

The Japanese Peace Bell; Located at the North Side of the United Nations Building. Made in 1950 through donations of pennies from children from around the world.

German Freedom Bell: A gift from the American people in 1950 ringing out Radio-Free-Europe to the Russians who under Soviet Communism couldn’t ring bells.

Dailbasto Temple Bell, Kyoto, Japan: Japan’s largest bell, it takes 16 men to ring it.

Ta Chung: China’s largest bell 14’ high, 10’ wide over 160,000 words inscribed on it.

Czar Kolokol: A Russian bell and the largest in the world; 222 tons (50 full grown elephants) 22’ diameter- 1’ thick.

The Titanic: 3 Bells, 1-23” Bell for the fcsle on the foremast. 1- 17” Bell for the lookout cage on the foremast. 1- 91/2”

BELL FACTS

On small ships the bell was usually positioned in front of, or on the windlass.

J.H Roeding reports in his Marine Dictionary, published in Hamburg in 1793, as follows: The bell hangs in a special bracket which sailors call the “gallows”, on merchantmen, it stands forward of the windlass and serves at the same time as a pall bit. To swing the bell it has an iron arm to which a rope is attached.

A ship’s bell is ‘struck” never rung. There is no such thing as ringing a bell on board ship.

On ships of many nations it was customary for the lookout on striking the bells to sing out; “All is well; the lights are burning bright.”

The “ International Rules of the Nautical Road” or Regulations for Preventing the Collision of Vessels at Sea.” which covers bells, were formulated and adopted at the 1889 International Marine Conference at Washington, DC. Interestingly, Turkish ships were exempted from carrying bells and were permitted to use drums instead.

The bellrope is one of the few “ropes” aboard ship; most ropes being called “lines”.
On German ships the bell rope is called the “Glockensteert” or “bell’s tail.” Only at a later period did it become fashionable to call the bellrope a “lanyard.” Bellropes were skillfully braided and decorated in highly varied patterns, usually with a Turk’s head knot at the end.

Oriental bells are struck from the outside with a hand devise, instead of from the inside with a clapper.

A ship’s bell has always been considered a trophy of war because more than any other moveable item on board, it represents the ship.

The big four-and-five masted square-riggers of the past often had two steering wheels, and the watch bell was usually mounted between them.

Great steamers carried three bells: the main bell on the foredeck, a smaller one on the bridge, and one in the foremast or “crow’s nest.” The lookout in the crow’s nest would signal sighting a ship with one bell if sighted at starboard, two bells if at port, and three bells if dead ahead. The foredeck bell was used for signaling, whenever a “shot” (an anchor chain consists of sections of chain each 90’ long, a shot) broke the surface the bell was struck once for each shot. The bell was struck rapidly when the anchor broke free of the bottom.

Light ships were often equipped with a large submarine bell suspended 25-35’ below the ships bottom. It was operated by compressed air, and sent the ship’s call signal at regular intervals. Steamship had to have special underwater receivers attached to their hulls and connected by electric wires to the bridge to pick up the signal.

For centuries, bell metal has consisted of approximately four pars copper to one part tin, to which a trace of other metals, including nickel, is added.

The oldest foundry in the United States is the McShane Bell Foundry in Baltimore.

LEGENDS AND SUPERSTITIONS

It is said that if a bell sustains damage, trouble lies ahead for the ship.

If a ship leaves her bell behind in port, misfortune threatens.

It is bad mojo if a ship uses the bell of another vessel.

If a ship is sold and gets a new name, but continues using the same bell with the
original name, don’t worry. All is well. In fact, fortune will smile on the ship and she
can count on prosperous voyages.

During a gale sometimes a ship would roll and heave so much that the clapper would
strike the bell and make appear to ring on it’s own. This was considered Davy Jones’
doing, announcing the ship’s doom.

Excerpts from the SHIPS BELL ITS HISTORY AND ROMANCE by Karl Wede
Southstreet Seaport Museum