Many of you remember the ships chimes that rang from the bell tower of Lillard Hall for decades, declaring the approaching watch change for those on shore. While the story below is not about the same clock, its chimes reminded me of those memories I have heard from alumni many times. The picture, below, doesn't show the beautiful engraving around the brass ring of Tabor Academy and All-A-Taut-O and the schools two founding years 1876 and 1916 around the edge, and TABOR BOY in full sail adorning the clock face. All I can think is that perhaps we have found the inspriation of the Tabor seal we use today as our logo.
The piece below, sharing the history of this lovely clock, was written by Jane McCarthy, Assistant to the Head of School.
There is a “new” clock just recently restored, mounted and hung over the mantel in the Carlson Room. The restoration was partially paid for by an alum and the beautiful mounting job on teak wood was done by Rodney Fielding in Plantops. Here’s a bit of background information on it in case you’re interested:
The 12” Ships Bell Clock is a Chelsea Clock (go to www.chelseaclock.com for some interesting history about their clocks, including photos with Churchill, FDR and President Kennedy). It was shipped to Tabor Academy on November 22, 1926 and it hung in Lillard Hall until about 1984.
According to Captain Geil, “the clock was put aboard the TABOR BOY during the 1984-1985 refit. It has been on the vessel for the past 28 years and has probably traveled the equivalent mileage of over two times around the world. During my time as Captain, the clock has been with the vessel on nine trips to the Virgin Islands, several visits to Bermuda and the Bahamas, and the 1993 voyage to Panama during which we sailed in the Pacific Ocean and visited the Turks and Caicos, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel, Mexico. It was also aboard for 21 summers on the Coast of Maine.”
As I said, the clock is a “ships bell clock” and according to Chelsea Clock, “Telling time by ship’s bell has a romantic background that goes back hundreds of years. It is based in the workday routine of the ship’s crew. A ship at sea requires a constant watch throughout the whole twenty-four hours of the day. To divide the duty, the day is broken up into six watches of four hours each and the crew into three divisions, or watches. To apprise the crew of the time, the ship’s bell was struck by the watch officer at half hour intervals, the first half hour being one bell, the first hour two bells, hour and a half three bells, and so on up to eight bells, denoting time to relieve the watch.”
The clock needs to be hand-wound once a week, keeps excellent time – according to Cap – and is quite striking to see.
If you are the area, please swing by to see this handsome piece of Tabor history.
In ship’s bell heaven,
Jane McCarthy
Assistant to the Head
