Bells, Clocks, Watches
Schedules and Time Adjustments
The Junior Officers on board Titanic were required to keep “watch-and-watch” with the Able-Bodied Seamen. Third Officer Herbert Pitman was in charge of the “port watch” and was paired with Fifth Officer Harold Godfrey Lowe. Fourth Officer Joseph Groves Boxhall was in charge of the “starboard watch” and was paired with Sixth Officer James Moody. What this meant was that each watch section, port and starboard, worked 4 hours on and then had 4 hours off. To ensure that the same watch section didn’t have to work the same hours every day, the 4 hour period from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. was divided into two Dog Watches of 2 hours each.
Regular sea watches for the Deck Department crew on board Titanic, excluding the Senior Officers, Lookouts, and those who did not have to stand regular sea watches, is shown below:
Regular Sea Watches on Board Ship |
|
|
Middle Watch |
Midnight to 4 a.m. |
|
Morning Watch |
4
a.m. to 8 a.m. |
|
Forenoon Watch |
8
a.m. to Noon |
|
Afternoon Watch |
Noon to 4 p.m. |
|
First Dog Watch |
4
p.m. to 6 p.m. |
|
Second Dog Watch |
6
p.m. to 8 p.m. |
|
First watch |
8
p.m. to Midnight |
The watch schedule for the Senior Officers in accordance with IMM rules is shown below:
Senior Officers’ Watches |
||
|
Chief Officer Wilde |
2 a.m. to 6 a.m. |
2 p.m. to 6 p.m. |
|
Second Officer Lightoller |
6 a.m. to 10 a.m. |
6 p.m. to 10 p.m. |
|
First Officer Murdoch |
10 a.m. to 2 p.m. |
10 p.m. to 2 a.m. |
Titanic had six lookouts who were divided into three
watch pairs. Their watch assignments were:
Lookouts’ Watches |
||||
|
Evans and Hogg |
Midnight to 2 a.m. |
6 a.m. to 8 a.m. |
Noon to 2 p.m. |
6 p.m. to 8 p.m. |
|
Symons and Jewell |
2 a.m. to 4 a.m. |
8 a.m. to 10 a.m. |
2 p.m. to 4 p.m. |
8 p.m. to 10 p.m. |
|
Fleet and Lee |
4 a.m. to 6 a.m. |
10 a.m. to Noon |
4 p.m. to 6 p.m. |
10 p.m. to Midnight |
Regular sea watches for the Engine Department crew on board Titanic, excluding those who do not stand regular sea watches, is shown below along with the watch leaders:
|
Engine Department Watch Assignments on the Titanic |
||
|
Senior Second Engineer William Farquharson and Senior Assistant Second Engineer Bertie Wilson |
Midnight to 4 a.m. |
Noon to 4 p.m. |
|
Junior Second Engineer Norman Harrison and Junior Assistant Second Engineer Herbert
Harvey |
4 a.m. to 8 a.m. |
4 p.m. to 8 p.m. |
|
Junior Second Engineer John Hesketh and Junior Assistant Second Engineer Jonathan
Shepherd |
8 a.m. to Noon |
8 p.m. to Midnight |
Time on board was marked by the striking of ship’s bells every half hour. The striking sequence was done in pairs as shown below:
|
Number of Bells Struck |
Bell Striking Sequence |
|
1 bell |
Ding |
|
2 bells |
Ding-Ding |
|
3 bells |
Ding-Ding; Ding |
|
4 bells |
Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding |
|
5 bells |
Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding; Ding |
|
6 bells |
Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding |
|
7 bells |
Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding; Ding |
|
8 bells |
Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding; Ding-Ding |
According to the IMM Co. “Ship’s Rules and Uniform
Regulations (July 1907):”
116. Time To be Kept. -- Seventy-fifth meridian time must
be used for time of arrival and departure from Sandy Hook Lightship, Five
Fathom Bank Lightship, and other points of arrival and departure in the United
States and Canada. Greenwich Mean Time must be used in Abstract Logs after the
English or Irish land is made. When passing points and ships at sea, either
eastbound or westbound, Greenwich Mean Time, as well as ship's time must be
used.
259. Ship’s Time. -- The Officer of the Watch [OOW] will
see that the ship's time is changed between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.,
the clocks to be set for Noon before 6 a.m. The Engine Room Clock must at all
times agree with the Clock in the Wheelhouse, and must be corrected
accordingly.
303. Winding Chronometers. -- Unless the Commander otherwise decides, he [the First Officer] will wind and compare chronometers at 8 a.m. each day, and keep a Chronometer Comparison Book. He will also see that the clock’s are wound.
305. Engine Room and
Deck Clocks to Agree. -- When passing points of departure or
arrival, he [the First Officer] will see that the Engine room and Deck
times agree.
420. Deck and Engine Room Times to Agree. -- He [the Chief Engineer] will be careful to keep the time or clock by which the engine department is worked as nearly as possible the same as the Deck Department or Bridge time.
On land, time is based on a mean (or fictitious) sun that takes exactly 24 hours to go around the earth each day. However, time on board ship was based on the position of the true sun and needed to be adjusted every day, an adjusted that was necessary because of the movement of the ship and something called the equation of time. On White Star Line ships, clocks were adjusted close to midnight each night so that at local apparent noon the next day, when the true sun crossed the ship’s local meridian, the clocks will read 12:00. Time kept by the position of the true sun was called Apparent Time Ship (ATS). For westbound ships, such as the Titanic on her maiden voyage, the clocks had to be put back each night near midnight. For eastbound ships, the clocks had to be put forward each night near midnight. From a section of a 1924 White Star Line brochure given to second class passengers on a westbound voyage [courtesy of Mark Chirnside]:
“On the voyage from Europe, owing to the
alteration in time as the ship proceeds Westward, it is necessary to put the
clock back every 24 hours. The alteration in time is made at about midnight,
and the clock is usually put back from 35 to 45 minutes on each occasion, the
exact amount of time depending upon the distance the ship is estimated to make
by noon the next day. During the first 24 hours, however, owing to the change
from Mean time to Apparent Time, the alteration is likely to be considerably
more than 45 minutes, especially while Summer Time is in use.”
From second officer Lightoller and third officer Pitman we know that the clocks on Titanic were adjusted at midnight (as also noted in that White Star Line brochure) so that they would read 12:00 at local apparent noon the next day. If a slight correction to the clocks were needed, it was done some time before noon when they could obtain a sun line to give them their longitude. And that correction, which would have been done on the master clocks carried on board the ship, would at most be ½ to 1 minute if needed at all. At local apparent noon the ship’s officers would take another sight of the sun to get their noontime latitude, and then advance the morning sun line to the noon latitude line by taking into account the speed and direction the ship was making between those two observations. This would then give them what is called a running fix for their noontime position.
Clocks in public places on Titanic were controlled by a master clock in the chart room. Some passengers would stay up in a few places such as the smoking rooms and cafes to await the clock change so they can set their personal timepieces to the new time at midnight before retiring for the night. However, we know from QM Robert Hichens, that clocks used for keeping “Bridge time” were adjusted in two steps to add or remove half the total adjustment time, whichever the case may be, from the watch sections of those keeping regular sea watches. According to Jim Currie, the practice on British Merchant ships was to make the first “Bridge time” adjustment at midnight, and the second at 4 a.m. With two master clocks on board, it would be relatively easy to make these types of adjustments if one controlled slave clocks in public places while the other controlled slave clocks in places used by the crew.
The table below – Scenario For a Westbound Voyage – shows the sequence for adjusting clocks on Titanic. This scenario also allows the total extra time to be split not only between the two deck crew watch sections, but also between the First Officer and the Chief Officer.[1] Only two clock adjustments are carried out. The first column (for reference) is time on an unadjusted clock originally set to read 12:00 at local apparent noon April 14, 1912. The second column shows time kept on a master clock controlling the slave clocks in public places. The third column, called Bridge Time, shows time on clocks used by the Deck and Engine departments for managing their watch schedules. And the fourth column lists specific events. (D&E in the table refers to Deck and Engine department personnel, excluding lookouts and the senior officers, on regular watch schedules. Where a row in a given time column is split, time on the left shows time on the clock just before an adjustment is made, while that on the right is just after the adjustment is made.)
We begin at 8 p.m., with the striking of 8-bells and the change of watch.
|
SCENARIO FOR
A WESTBOUND VOYAGE |
|||||
|
Sequence of Planned Clock
Changes on Titanic For the Night of April 14, 1912 |
|||||
|
Unadjusted clock |
Clocks in Public Places |
Bridge Time |
Event |
||
|
8:00 |
8:00 p.m. |
8:00 p.m. |
8-bells D&E crew
change of watch (First Watch
comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
8:30 |
8:30 p.m. |
8:30 p.m. |
1-bell |
||
|
9:00 |
9:00 p.m. |
9:00 p.m. |
2-bells |
||
|
9:30 |
9:30 p.m. |
9:30 p.m. |
3-bells |
||
|
10:00 |
10:00 p.m. |
10:00 p.m. |
4-bells OOW change of
watch Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
10:30 |
10:30 p.m. |
10:30 p.m. |
5-bells |
||
|
11:00 |
11:00 p.m. |
11:00 p.m. |
6-bells |
||
|
11:30 |
11:30 p.m. |
11:30 p.m. |
7-bells |
||
|
12:00 |
12:00 a.m. |
11:13 p.m. |
12:00 a.m. |
11:37 p.m. |
Public clocks set back 47 min Bridge-Time clocks set back 23 min |
|
12:08 |
11:21 |
11:45 |
One-bell warning to watch
below |
||
|
12:23 |
11:36 p.m. |
12:00 a.m. |
8-bells (Midnight) Start of April
15th 1912 D&E crew
change of watch (Middle Watch
comes on deck) Lookout change of watch |
||
|
12:53 |
12:06 a.m. |
12:30 a.m. |
1-bell |
||
|
1:23 |
12:36 a.m. |
1:00 a.m. |
2-bells |
||
|
1:53 |
1:06 a.m. |
1:30 a.m. |
3-bells |
||
|
2:23 |
1:36 a.m. |
2:00 a.m. |
4-bells OOW change of
watch Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
2:53 |
2:06 a.m. |
2:30 a.m. |
5-bells |
||
|
3:23 |
2:36 a.m. |
3:00 a.m. |
6-bells |
||
|
3:53 |
3:06 a.m. |
3:30 a.m. |
7-bells |
||
|
4:23 |
3:36 a.m. |
4:00 a.m. |
3:36 a.m. |
Bridge-Time clocks set back 24 min |
|
|
4:32 |
3:45 |
3:45 |
One-bell warning to watch
below |
||
|
4:47 |
4:00 a.m. |
4:00 a.m. |
8-bells D&E crew
change of watch (Morning
Watch comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
5:17 |
4:30 a.m. |
4:30 a.m. |
1-bell |
||
|
5:47 |
5:00 a.m. |
5:00 a.m. |
2-bells |
||
|
6:17 |
5:30 a.m. |
5:30 a.m. |
3-bells |
||
|
6:47 |
6:00 a.m. |
6:00 a.m. |
4-bells OOW change of
watch Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
7:17 |
6:30 a.m. |
6:30 a.m. |
5-bells |
||
|
7:47 |
7:00 a.m. |
7:00 a.m. |
6-bells |
||
|
8:17 |
7:30 a.m. |
7:30 a.m. |
7-bells |
||
|
8:32 |
7:45 a.m. |
7:45 a.m. |
one-bell warning to watch
below |
||
|
8:47 |
8:00 a.m. |
8:00 a.m. |
8-bells D&E crew
change of watch (Forenoon
Watch comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch |
||
It is interesting to note that when 8-bells are struck at midnight, it comes exactly half way in time between local apparent noon the previous day and local apparent noon the next day. This also makes the start of the next day (marked by 12:00 a.m. on Bridge Time clocks) occur very close to when the ship’s time reference, the true sun, would be crossing the lower branch of the ship’s local meridian, agreeing with the definition of midnight for a ship keeping Apparent Time based on the position of the sun each day at local apparent noon.[2]
For an eastbound voyage clocks had to set ahead since the actual time from local apparent noon one day to local apparent noon the following day was less than 24 hours.
The following table – Scenario For an Eastbound Voyage – shows the sequence that would have been used on Olympic on her maiden eastbound voyage. Again, only two time adjustments are made during the night. The first column, again for reference, is time on an unadjusted clock originally set to read 12:00 at local apparent noon July 1, 1911. The second column shows time kept on a master clock controlling the slave clocks in public places. The third column, Bridge Time, shows time on clocks used by the deck and engine departments for managing their watch schedules. And the fourth column lists specific events.
We begin, as before, at 8 p.m. with the striking of 8-bells and the change of watch.
|
SCENARIO FOR AN
EASTBOUND VOYAGE |
|||||
Possible Sequence of
Planned Clock Changes on Olympic For the Night of July 1, 1911 |
|||||
|
Unadjusted clock |
Clocks in Public Places |
Bridge Time |
Event |
||
|
8:00 |
8:00 p.m. |
8:00 p.m. |
8-bells D&E crew
change of watch (First Watch
comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
8:30 |
8:30 p.m. |
8:30 p.m. |
1-bell |
||
|
9:00 |
9:00 p.m. |
9:00 p.m. |
2-bells |
||
|
9:30 |
9:30 p.m. |
9:30 p.m. |
3-bells |
||
|
10:00 |
10:00 p.m. |
10:00 p.m. |
4-bells OOW change of
watch Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
10:30 |
10:30 p.m. |
10:30 p.m. |
5-bells |
||
|
11:00 |
11:00 p.m. |
11:00 p.m. |
6-bells |
||
|
11:30 |
11:30 p.m. |
11:30 p.m. |
7-bells |
||
|
11:45 p.m. |
11:45 p.m. |
11:45 p.m. |
One-bell warning to watch
below |
||
|
12:00 |
12:00 a.m. |
12:44 a.m. |
12:00 a.m. |
12:22 a.m. |
8-bells (Midnight) Start of July 2nd D&E crew
change of watch (Middle Watch
comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch Public clocks set ahead 44 min Bridge-Time clocks set ahead 22 min |
|
12:08 |
12:52 a.m. |
12:30 a.m. |
1-bell |
||
|
12:38 |
1:22 a.m. |
1:00 a.m. |
2-bells |
||
|
1:08 |
1:52 a.m. |
1:30 a.m. |
3-bells |
||
|
1:38 |
2:22 a.m. |
2:00 a.m. |
4-bells OOW change of
watch Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
2:08 |
2:52 a.m. |
2:30 a.m. |
5-bells |
||
|
2:38 |
3:22 a.m. |
3:00 a.m. |
6-bells |
||
|
3:08 |
3:52 a.m. |
3:30 a.m. |
7-bells |
||
|
3:23 |
4:07 a.m. |
3:45 a.m. |
One-bell warning to watch
below |
||
|
3:38 |
4:22 a.m. |
4:00 a.m. |
4:22 a.m. |
8-bells D&E crew
change of watch (Morning
Watch comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch Bridge-Time clocks set ahead 22 min |
|
|
3:46 |
4:30 a.m. |
4:30 a.m. |
1-bell |
||
|
4:16 |
5:00 a.m. |
5:00 a.m. |
2-bells |
||
|
4:46 |
5:30 a.m. |
5:30 a.m. |
3-bells |
||
|
5:17 |
6:00 a.m. |
6:00 a.m. |
4-bells OOW change of
watch Lookout
change of watch |
||
|
5:46 |
6:30 a.m. |
6:30 a.m. |
5-bells |
||
|
6:16 |
7:00 a.m. |
7:00 a.m. |
6-bells |
||
|
6:46 |
7:30 a.m. |
7:30 a.m. |
7-bells |
||
|
7:01 |
7:45 a.m. |
7:45 a.m. |
one-bell warning to watch
below |
||
|
7:16 |
8:00 a.m. |
8:00 a.m. |
8-bells D&E crew
change of watch (Forenoon
Watch comes on deck) Lookout
change of watch |
||
On the subject of “Time on Shipboard” written in a brochure for White Star Line passengers, it stated that shipboard time can be marked from the striking of bells on the vessel. [WSL brochure given to second class passengers, courtesy of Mark Chirnside.] The marking of time by the ship’s bell was listed as follows:
|
Watch |
Bridge Time |
Bells struck |
Watch |
Bridge Time |
Bells struck |
|
Middle Watch |
12:30 a.m. |
1 bell |
Afternoon Watch |
12:30 p.m. |
1 bell |
|
1:00 a.m. |
2 bells |
1:00 p.m. |
2 bells |
||
|
1:30 a.m. |
3 bells |
1:30 p.m. |
3 bells |
||
|
2:00 a.m. |
4 bells |
2:00 p.m. |
4 bells |
||
|
2:30 a.m. |
5 bells |
2:30 p.m. |
5 bells |
||
|
3:00 a.m. |
6 bells |
3:00 p.m. |
6 bells |
||
|
3:30 a.m. |
7 bells |
3:30 p.m. |
7 bells |
||
|
4:00 a.m. |
8 bells |
4:00 p.m. |
8 bells |
||
|
Morning Watch |
4:30 a.m. |
1 bell |
First Dog Watch |
4:30 p.m. |
1 bell |
|
5:00 a.m. |
2 bells |
5:00 p.m. |
2 bells |
||
|
5:30 a.m. |
3 bells |
5:30 p.m. |
3 bells |
||
|
6:00 a.m. |
4 bells |
6:00 p.m. |
4 bells |
||
|
6:30 a.m. |
5 bells |
Second Dog Watch |
6:30 p.m. |
1 bell |
|
|
7:00 a.m. |
6 bells |
7:00 p.m. |
2 bells |
||
|
* 7:20 a.m. |
7 bells |
7:30 p.m. |
3 bells |
||
|
8:00 a.m. |
8 bells |
8:00 p.m. |
8 bells |
||
|
Forenoon Watch |
8:30 a.m. |
1 bell |
First Watch |
8:30 p.m. |
1 bell |
|
9:00 a.m. |
2 bells |
9:00 p.m. |
2 bells |
||
|
9:30 a.m. |
3 bells |
9:30 p.m. |
3 bells |
||
|
10:00 a.m. |
4 bells |
10:00 p.m. |
4 bells |
||
|
10:30 a.m. |
5 bells |
10:30 p.m. |
5 bells |
||
|
11:00 a.m. |
6 bells |
11:00 p.m. |
6 bells |
||
|
* 11:20 a.m. |
7 bells |
11:30 p.m. |
7 bells |
||
|
Noon |
8 bells |
Midnight |
8 bells |
* Seven bells in these two watches are struck 10 minutes earlier to allow the Watch next for duty to have their breakfast and lunch respectively.
One bell is also struck 15 minutes prior to 8 bells being struck as a warning to the Watch below that they are expected to be on deck punctually when 8 bells are struck.
[1] We know from testimony of
Charles Lightoller that extra time was not added to the second officer’s time
on watch.
[2] From the Glossary of The American Practical Navigator, 2002 Bicentennial Edition [Bowditch]: “midnight, n. Twelve hours from noon, or the instant the time reference crosses the lower branch of the reference celestial meridian.”