VINTAGE BRASS MILITARY NAVY ? HOUR GLASS FORENOON WATCH

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Click Double your traffic. Get Vendio Gallery - Now FREE! Up for your consideration is a very unique Hour Glass. The Hour Glass is solid brass and stands 10-1/2" tall. The top of the timepiece is unique in design having - Morning Watch Two Dog Watches, Afternoon Watch Middle Watch, Forenoon Watch First Watch and Roman Numeral Numbers around this and numbers for each watch. Completely unscrews and comes apart - all original pieces are Sand runs smoothly in approximately 30 minutes. This is a very interesting piece. After researching this piece I was very tempted to keep it, but we need food on our table more than I need an hour glass in my office. Below is some information about the Morning, Afternoon and Forenoon watch. The daily routine onboard a warship at sea would depend upon your skills, if you had been 'pressed' these would have been ascertained when you were assessed by the First Lieutenant and Boatswain. He would decide, depending on your previous experience, what your position would be onboard. If you had no experience of sea life whatsoever you would be classed as a 'landsman'; this was the lowest of the low and you would carry out general 'domestic' type duties, these were also referred to as 'waisters' or 'idlers'. If you had a skill, i.e. carpenter, sailmaker or you had been to sea before, then you would be given a task more fitting your skills. Most highly prized were the men who had had experience in setting sails, steering the ship or firing of the great guns. For the skilled seamen, the day was governed by a series of 'watches'. For this the crew were divided into two watches; larboard (port) and starboard. Each would take their turn carrying out the duties of the 'watch on deck', setting and trimming sails, steering and navigating the ship, and keeping lookout from high up in the crosstrees of the masts for other ships and hazards. The day was divided into watches as follows: - Afternoon Watch 1200 - 1600 (Midday until 4pm) First Dog Watch 1600 - 1800 (4pm until 6pm) Last Dog Watch 1800 - 2000 (6pm until 8pm) First Watch 2000 - 2359 (8pm until Midnight) Middle Watch 2359 - 0400 (Midnight until 4am) Morning Watch 0400 - 0800 (4am until 8am) Forenoon Watch 0800 - 1200 (8am until Midday) The larboard and starboard watches took each watch in turn; the two dog watches were created to avoid one watch getting the same periods on watch every day. The ship's day started at midday; this was when the ship's speed and the sun's altitude would be ascertained. The Hand Log would be used to derive the speed in knots. The Master, Master's Mates and Midshipmen would use their sextants and quadrants to estimate the sun's highest point in the sky; noon was reported when the sun reached its meridian. The clock would then be put forward or back as necessary, and the ship's day would start. To assist the rest of the crew to know what time of day it was a system of bells were used. A senior man would have two sandglasses, a half-hour and four-hour. At the start of the watch both glasses would be started; when the half-hour glass ran out, it would be restarted and a bell on the forecastle would be struck once, when it ran out again, it would be restarted and the bell struck twice. This then would be repeated until the four-hour glass ran out; this would mean eight bells, the end of the watch, and the whole process would start again. Although the ship's day started at 1200 noon, the domestic day started much earlier. The idlers, those that did not keep watches, were called at 5.30am. They would then start to scrub the lower decks with 'holystone', large blocks of sandstone, which required them to roll up their trousers and get down on their knees and scour the deck with sand and the bible sized blocks. They would also polish the brass and copper fitments with brick dust. The cook and his mates had been up since 5am lighting the galley range preparing for the days cooking. The time that the men not on watch were raised from their slumbers ... read more

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