I can now tell time by the ship’s clock. It’s always been a bit of a mystery to me, as the chimes seem to have no rhyme or reason. Here’s the scoop:

On shipboard, time is marked by a bell, which is struck eight times at 4, 8, and 12 o’clock. Half an hour after it has struck “eight bells” it is struck once, and at every succeeding half hour the number of strokes is increased by one, till at the end of the four hours, which constitute a watch, it is struck eight times.

Granted, now I have to do math to tell the time, but a puzzle is solved for why the darn thing chimes 7 times at 3:30 in the afternoon!