Posted by Alan Hakim on August 16, 2005 at 18:40:15 from 212.137.232.182 user awhakim.
In Reply to: Re: Telling TIME with Bells posted by Pam Adams on August 16, 2005 at 17:44:39:
Ed, it's clear that what you need over there is a copy of Amazon Publications' Jibbooms and Bobstays. We had better send you one to commemorate your virtual appearance at the TARS Literary Weekend.
Having said which, I find you have worked out the watches quite correctly. Here is the table from J&B:
midnight to 4am - middle watch
4am to 8am - morning watch
8am to noon - forenoon watch
noon to 4pm - afternoon watch
4pm to 6pm - first dog watch
6pm to 8pm - last or second dog watch
8pm to midnight - first watch
Bells accumulate every half-hour, from ONE half an hour into the watch (e.g. 12.30am) to EIGHT at the end of it. There is one anomaly: the first dog watch ends at FOUR bells, while the second goes from THREE at 7.30pm to EIGHT at 8.00pm.
Since 'am' and 'pm' mean before and after noon, 12am has to be midnight. 12pm is meaningless really, but by a process of elimination (we've used up midnight already) tends to be noon.
There used to be a convention in 24-hour timetables that a midnight train on the night between day 1 and day 2 would depart at 00.00 of day 2 or arrive at 24.00 of day 1. But nowadays they seem to avoid the problem by using 23.59 and 00.01, which are unambiguous.