Strike The Bell

[Bartholomew Foulsteel]

Of course, Zep!

Normally, a ship was divided into two watches--the Starboard Watch and the Larboard (nowadays called PORT) watch. One watch would be the duty crew on deck while the other was off duty and free to while away their time as they pleased (scrimshaw, singing, playing music, gambling, etc.).

Time was told aboard ships by use of an hourglass/sundial (in the shanty above, an hourglass) and by using bells. I won't get into the bells here, but just know that ringing the bell refers to an hour or half-hour time.

In the above shanty, the ringing of the bell would signify that the current watch could go below and the NEXT watch would have to come on duty.

As the participants look to windward, they see a big storm on the way. They want to get belowdecks and let the next watch deal with it.

The Captain of course, is planning on reefing the sails and continuing on the voyage instead of locking up and weathering the storm.