I have a key-wind Seth Thomas ship's clock. Time is set by turning the minute hand until the correct time is displayed. Doing this often screws up the chime sequence. How do I resynchronize the chimes with the time so that the correct number of chimes sound as they are supposed to at each quarter hour? E.g.: 12 o'clock = 8 bells. Thank you.

The ships bell is struck every half hour. A single stroke is struck a half hour after the beginning of each watch, at 12:30, 4:30, and 8:30 (both am and pm). An additional stroke is added at each tolling, every half hour, so that 8 bells is struck at the end of the watch. The interval between strikes is either one or two seconds, alternating. In the table below, the hyphen represents a 1-second interval and the long dash a 2-second interval.

Number of
Strikes When How struck
1 12:30am 4:30am 8:30am 12:30pm 4:30pm 8:30pm B
2 1:00 am 5:00am 9:00am 1:00pm 5:00pm 9:00pm B-B
3 1:30am 5:30am 9:30am 1:30pm 5:30pm 9:30pm B-BB
4 2:00am 6:00am 10:00am 2:00pm 6:00pm 10:00pm B-BB-B
5 2:30am 6:30am 10:30am 2:30pm 6:30pm 10:30pm B-BB-BB
6 3:00am 7:00am 11:00am 3:00pm 7:00pm 11:00pm B-BB-BB-B
7 3:30am 7:30am 11:30am 3:30pm 7:30pm 11:30pm B-BB-BB-BB
8 4:00am 8:00am noon 4:00pm 8:00pm midnight B-BB-BB-BB-B

Ships bells are no longer rung on merchant ships, but the custom is maintained on passenger, training, and naval vessels.

My problem is that the chime sequence is exactly one hour off. Meaning that at 1:00 it strikes 8x instead of twice; at 1:30 it strikes once instead of 3x. How do I resynchronize the chime to the time so that the sequencing is correct?

When I set my bulkhead ships clock ,( it doesn't chime, it rings a bell) I turn the minute hand until it rings. Then I keep backing up the minute hand causing it to ring until the correct bells are set to the correct time. Good luck, Tom