The Superstitious Sailor: The Ship's Bell
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- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- The ship's bell is a sacred part of the ship, often considered the ship's soul, but why is that? What lead up to a piece of brass being considered the most sacred part of the ship?
#history #superstition
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As someone who heard the Edmund fitzgerald's bell first hand it's definitely a haunting sound.
That was my thought as well after seeing the documentary of the recovery of the Bell, especially after I saw it at Michigan State University before it went to Detroit, though I think it's up in the Soo now.
@Daniel Seelye the bell is at Whitefish point, the great lakes shipwreck museum has it.
@@Ohiotrucker1 I haven't heard that bell but I can't help but wonder if it only sounds haunting because of what happened to the ship? In other words, if she was still in service wonder if it would still sound haunting.
@@cbbees1468 Check out the documentary of the "Fitz" from 1995. They show the deep sea diver cutting the Bell from the pilothouse, welding the new commemorative Bell with the crews' names and the Bell breaking the surface, ringing clearly for all to hear.
@CB Bees funny you should say that. When talking to ex crewmembers of the Fitzgerald they will always mentioned the bell's sound. When they heard it, it was sweet and soothing. Now it has the most haunting sound you will EVER hear.
"Will ringing the bell 8 times bring on your demise sooner?"
No. But when the Chief Bosun catches you, you will wish it had.
The part about the 8 bells also being considered synonymous with death is interesting because back in 2008, there was a horse called Eight Belles who ran second in the Kentucky Derby. Sadly, during the race, she broke her two front legs and had to be put down on the track after the race when she collapsed and couldn't get back up. I'd never seen that happen before in horse racing and the fact that she shares a name with something synonymous with death is a bit of a creepy omen.
"Eight Bells" is NOT "Eight Belles". "Belles" is a word applied to pretty young girls in France. "Belle" is the name given to the heroine of Disney's "Beauty and the Beast".
you missed the whole ( or should i say hole?) point
@@onemercilessming1342 ; No, she was called Eight Belles, there is a Wiki article on her, look it up. It was meant to be a wordplay.
@FirstDagger No sh*t. Sherlock. Wordplay or not, don't try attributing a horse's fall or a jockeys incompetence to naval lore. Run along now.
@martin edwards I missed nothing. Racehorse superstition (or shall I say, jockey incompetence) has NOTHING to do with naval lore. Run along now.
It seems like a lot of these superstitions DO have some root in history and generally amount to "This isn't strictly NECESSARY anymore, but, out of respect for tradition and better safe than sorry."
Part of the "soul" mystique is that every bell sounds different from each other, even when cast from the same mold. Metal purity, casting temps and time in mold, engraving, air temp when cooling and more affect a bell's resonance. Someone familiar with with ships that frequent their harbor who has good hearing can tell who is in port in a dense fog just from the sound of the bells.
We rung a physical bell on the ship I was stationed on. It would ring to tell time and alert to fires while underway and we would only strike 12 in port.
Funny about cooks taking care of the bell because the secret ingredient to keeping the thing shiny was hot sauce.
Oh yeah, we'd take a bottle of Tabasco, dab our rags like it were a chicken wing and begin shining. Worked great!
We still use the bell to tell time on the sail training ship Dar Młodziezy, as a way to cultivate tradition, but it's very handy since there are 40 men working in a watch at a time, and you can hear the bell high aloft on the masts so you can tell how much time has passed
My grandfather was in the Merchant Navy and always said after the eighth strike on the church bells back home, he would say a prayer. He would even do it when he came to visit me, saying he could always sense the bell end.
The USN still rings bells. It is the responsibility of the OOD to ensure that the BMOW strikes the appropriate number of bells on time (with a smaller brass bell in the pilot house). When handing in the 12 o' clock reports to the CO, the messenger ends his report with requesting permission to strike 8 bells on time. The CSs (Navy cooks) are still responsible for the bell, and babies are still occasionally baptized in them with their names inscribed inside
When I was in sea cadets I was the messenger and the bell was my responsibility and when our quarter master died in a accident it was my duty to give 8 bells and to this day its still the hardest thing I have had to do
Long John Silvers Restaurant had a bell you rang after your meal to covey to staff that you enjoyed it. Tbh, I don't know if any are still open
Well, the next time we see a Long John Silvers sinking, you'll remember back to this video lol
Flash back 50 years!
The Bell, is the heart and soul of a ship. I thought so when I volunteered on schooners and similar vessels
Never had to shine a bell, but being a goldsmith I know how to make one shine as good as it ever will (I'd probably be bad luck as I'd dismount it and disappear into the machineshop with it for a hour or two)
Btw like the channel. Nice calm and clear presentation in normal English and a touch of humour.
They shine them every now and then. In the US navy we use Never Dull and hand buff w/cotton rag. (The ships have three bells) one outside 14 inch dia - a second one inside in the pilot house / btidge.
Third used inport temporarily (small one 5 to 7" ) used inport for time keeping announcing and drills, from the Quarterdeck entry.
@@missingremote4388 Interesting. Never heard of Never Dull here, but I'm guessing it's the same as Brasso.
I'd sand it down with progressively finer sand paper until it's almost smooth paper that I'm using. Then I'd go for an aluminium oxide pre polish grease, go on to copper oxide polish (both using a power driven polishing wheel) and then finish off by hand with a diamond powder polish. After that I'd probably have to coat it in a really pure and fine clear oil, because that kind of polish really quickly loses its most perfect shine.
If I'd join the navy after my goldsmith school I'd probably be looking around all the time thinking 'You know... I could polish this whole ship. Nothing better to do while floating around'
Hey, I’ve wrung the bell on the very quarterdeck shown at 2:50
He who rings the bell, controls the seas!
In a way the superstitious reasoning is helpful in this instance; if you can't be sure of enforcement of the importance of something for practical reason, adding in that extra concern of "what if" might serve to help.
My question is: How often do YOU tend to your bell on the ship youre assigned to in the Coast Guard?
I don't any more. But I definitely did as a young seaman in the navigation division. I'm quite familiar with the smell of Never-Dull, let me tell you.
this is my favorite series please keep making these!
Interesting video. I used to hate doing the noon bells and whistle on the ship. Just knowing if you messed it up you’d hear it from everyone on board.
Also there were more than a few times when we’d be anchored in low visibility and had to sound the bell and gong. The electronic bell was almost always broken so some one had to go out and manually ring the bell.
Like many shipwrecks, The Edmund Fitzgerald is considered a gravesite which cannot be disturbed, any attempts being punishable as graverobbing. But in 1994 the families of those who died allowed the ship's bell to be recovered and restored, and a replica with the names of all the crew to lose their lives was put in it's place
Outstanding work man. Always glad to see you putting stuff out.
Ever thought about making a video about your own experiences at sea/while serving? Would make a really interesting topic I believe!
Ill never forget going to the Whydah treasure museum in cape cod and seeing the bell of the ship suspended in a glass tube of sea water. It was truly awesome
really cool info!.. thanks
Great video as always! I found your channel a few months back, and you do an awesome job of explaining key points in maritime history and lore. Best wishes from Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦
As for dying at sea, I’ve several times come across a superstition I’ve never heard of.
One was an American submarine crew member that wrote, “we were on the bottom and knew we were all going to die so we asked permission to remove our shoes and the captain granted.” I’ve read that several other places where when it seemed like death was about to happen the crew member removed his shoes of he was wearing any.
I definitely knew that the ship's bell had a lot of symbolic significance but I hadn't known why until now. Thanks!
I had to shine the bell as a Non-Rate, many a time, but I don't think I ever considered it a 'dis-privilege' though. I too, know the smell of Never Dull. Sort of miss that smell, actually...
I can't remember who's bell we had in the NJROTC room... but if anyone touched it, they were doomed to polish it. And if it wasn't polished for a bit, one or all of the officers and any enlisted volunteers would help polish it. At least I hope that was a real memory 😂
One of my favorite channels on RUclips. Keep up the good work
This is probably the least superstitious episode of this series. The bell was a very important tool to sailors of old and in some ways still is today. Cool video
Great work as always! Thanks for the info : )
I think I understand why this series isn't getting as many views. Everyone wants a juicy ship sinking, but that's a massive oversight on those that don't click on them
Ok, odd question, but shouldn't shining a ship's bell be seen as a high honor, captain and crew trusting the maintainer with something so important?
I sailed on a ship that kept their bell in the crew bar, anyone who rang it had to buy a round of drinks for the entire crew. The last tug I sailed with had her bell given to one of the engineers with his daughter's name engraved on the inside before the vessel was sold off. Sadly now my current tug just has an electronic bell.
Always happy to see a new video from you. I prefer the longer form stuff but these short ones are nice too.
2:15 YO THATS WHAT THAT MEANS?! In the US Navy our boot camp graduation there is a moment “Time orderly sound X bells” I never knew what the hell they meant “Time orderly”. The more you know.
I had the pleasure of visiting the ships bell of my first ship, decommissioned now, in the town hall of the namesake.
A weird Navy tradition is also that some kids get baptized in the ships bell and the name of the kid and the date gets stamped into the bell, just had someone baptized in the bell of the destroyer I’m on.
Ihave heard the term "eight bells" before as an ominous omen. Wasn´t aware that this was the source, though. Thanks!
It wouldn't suprise me at all if the ship's bells can ring underwater. Because physically it is possible but requires a lot more force since you're fighting the water and corrosion for the right of way. Also because there are storms, gales, and hurricanes that effect currents underwater along with each wave.
Always great to see your content , appreciate it gets fitted in around life !
Last time I was this early, I still had bones!
Love the great use of the 2-women-and-a-cat meme! :)
Eight Bells reminds me of a good song of the same name by the Jolly Rogers. Thank you
Please give us more content, You do a great job, Very educational and well worth watching.
Shining brass as a non rate is a timed honored tradition
Served in the Canadian Navy, and never heard about those superstitions before
The thumbnail is glorious
Great little video, mate. Glad to see you back. Cheers.
👍could you do a small video about the "city of Bangor" shipwreck..
A interesting tradition from my old Unit, if you rang the bell out of time, you owe everyone who heard it a drink from the Naffi, the bar tabs got rather ludicrous
Good to see you uploading more now!
Please do a video on captain Felix Von Luckner! The last sailing ship raider and his epic journey and fights from the north to the south seas where he sunk many but killed none. True legend!
I rang 8 bells at my father's memorial. It's one of the hardest thing I've ever done.
Hey! At 2:52 that photo is that of USS Frank Cable, my ship's sister ship! I was on the Emory S Land!
The cooks still shined the bell in the early 2000s
Sound does propagate through water better than through air. So provided the bell wasn't all crusted up and something knocked into it, it would ring louder and longer than on the surface.
I need a bell. And a boat. And an ocean...
Love your channel!
So, what do we do with a drunken coastie?
Asking for a friend.
Give them an alcohol incident and Captain's Mast them. Usually it's a month restriction, a month of extra duty, and half pay for a month. Sometimes it's reduction in pay grade.
@@MaritimeHorrors I'd rather be put in a longboat till I'm sober.
Another great video, thanks.
@@ropeburnsrussell Better than being put in the scuppers with a hosepipe on you, I guess.
I could see the underwater current ringing the bell if it was in the right position. However im not sure if it could be heard unless you were right next to it.
Given the relative difficulty of a ship's bell getting lodged firmly into the seafloor all along its bottom rim, the likelihood that it will still be perched on SOME thing even at the bottom of the ocean, and the force that can be provided by undersea water currents, I'd say that a ship's bell likely could ring regularly underwater, but even close up, it wouldn't sound anywhere near the same until it was lifted out of the water and cleaned/repaired.
On Swedish ships You are absolutely not supposed to polish the ships bell. In fact it's one of the worst things a sailor can do (in terms of superstition). If you polish it you also polish the ships luck away.
Today people aren't really that superstitious anymore and it's generally considered a fun play from more seasoned sailors to try to trick new unexperienced sailors to polish the ships bell... but don't fall for it you will be ridiculed for the rest of your career.
The patina of a ships bell is a part of its history, let it live.
;-)
Interesting that rule 33 makes it mandatory for a bell to be on a ship. I wonder what rule 34 is?
I don't know. You should look up ship rule 34 on google
Oh you...
@@MaritimeHorrors Should I tell him?
I get the distinct feeling he knows what he did.
@@MaritimeHorrors Probably, but it's funnier this way.
Fair winds friend
Alright, i just discovered you. I've been a sailor since 2014. I need to know where the "never leave port on a Friday" came from. I've experienced shit trips when we left on Friday (on command from the office) so I would love to see a video on the origin of this superstition.
Also would love to hear the one I've heard and witnessed a thousand times working on the Bearing Sea is "whistling up a storm".
Do you have any interest in making a video about the customs of how ship's cooks have been treated through the centuries and across various cultures?
You mean I just doomed the local ferry by ringing the bell? Shooot.
I love thi series, keep up the good work :)
The bell on the old vessels was close to or directly above the flue for the galleys stove, maybe that's why the cook had clean it .
My favorite channel of this type though, sadly, it posts the least.
2 videos in a month? Davey Jones gives up the dead again.
Back in a day when I was 1.st mate at this containership, I thought that if I listened that titanic theme song by celine dion I would end up wrecking that ship.
Excellent history lesson! I am off to get a bell tattoo!
excellent! thanks for this history
Very interesting!🙌
And that's why someone stole Concordia's fuck-off bell.
Great video; got yourself a subscriber 😊
Reminds me of the ship's bell that went missing from the wreck of the Costa Concordia. Was it ever found?
Video about Saleem Express, please! One of the biggest disasters in modern history, and so little information.
someone stole the friggin bell from the Costa Concordia... I learned that from Internet Historians docu about it.
Heya Maritime, for your next April fools vid, would you do one on the fall (and destruction) of High Charity? I saw your April Fools one on the Autumn, why not do one for the Covenant holy city? After all, she is technically the largest ship in the covenant fleet.
2:18 oh no shipmate, ringing the bell is not electronically done on us navy warships, we still do it by hand. Cookie does still shine it on the ships I served aboard.
We do ring it over the 1mc, but that's different from using a recording on a computer
Dank Nautical Memes
1 MINUTE GANNGGG, HERE I AM, WHERES THE RUM
3 MINUTE GAAANG. WHERE'S THE GROG?
I was the 1000th like 👍 👌 good work as always getting you off the Nelson
As the Irish would say; MALARKEY🧙!!! All I know, 8 bells means, it's 8, o'clock🙄.
A ships bell is its identity, or even its spirit or soul!
No mention of how they felt about old bell buoys. Which are less common today but before other types of buoys were prevalent they warned of dangerous shoals.
The first bouy on the channel into the docks I work out of is still referred to as the bell bouy.
I'll ring to that!!
A bell can and will sound underwater, as long as there is enough tidal or wave motion to move it or it;s clapper together hard enough... and like a boat's engine and other sounds, the tolling will carry quite a way underwater. Will a ship's bell toll in deep water? Much less likely, as the water motion is much less there than in shallow areas like shoals.
The Costa Concordia bell was stolen and never found
I've heard of this.
Shining the ships bell. So that's what it's called now eh?
Rule 33...sooo...sooo close.🤣
I can't escape the COLREGS they follow me everywhere lmao. 100 multiple choice exam on them this Thursday :D
Ship suggestion: The Kamchatka
Is the ships bell also related to the phrase "knocked seven bells out of them?" like they've been brought almost to the 8th bell and the end?
Ding dong new video is here