Time Gentlemen — and ladies — please!

In time honoured tradition a ship’s bell is  particularly appropriate in a bar to signify drinking up time, and indeed  that drinking time is at an end.
After all, the ship’s bell has particular significance in maritime circles where  it is used to indicate the time aboard a ship and  to confirm duty watches by the crew.
So the bell in a corner of the bar at the Royal Southampton Yacht Club in the city’s Ocean Village has an equally important role though more associated with the civil use of the bell.
You can’t have escaped the words called out at closing time in any pub., “Time Gentlemen, Please.”  It is time honoured fashion that the sound of a bell should accompany  the call as closing time approaches, giving patrons the chance to order another drink before the bar closes. Then the bell will be rung again at closing time itself.
In maritime circles aboard ship, the bell is used as a clock, but its timing does not accord to the striking of the hour, but to half hour watches leading to the convention of eight bells in a four hour duty watch.

Come to think of it, a four hour watch in a bar would be quite a drinking session, even with a meal, and I think beyond my stamina these days.!