Snake Boat Race

Man and Cheer Ship

Manning and Cheering ship as a collective mark of respect in honour of a person or of another ship is a very old custom. In the days of sail the yards and shrouds were manned as well as the decks, but now a days only decks are manned. Some example of occasions on which this mark of honour is paid are: visit of Sovereign to the Fleet, the entry into port of ships which have shared a victory, the final departure of a ship from a foreign station on her way home to pay-off.

New Year's Day - Striking 16 Bells

It is the custom for the youngest member of the ship's company to "ring out the Old Year and ring in the New" by striking 16 bells at midnight on the New Year's Eve.

Navigator's Chronometer

Next in line, and still within the orbit of the "happy ship," comes the navigator.  With the ship at sea and under way "The Pilot" seldom leaves his navigating bridge. In harbour there are his charts to correct and a number of small jobs such as checking range-finder ranges which help the gunnery officer. He also has charge of the ship's chronometers - and here again tradition steps in. 

Time was when a ship's chronometer, used for determining by calculation the ship's precise longitude at any moment, were one of the most important items of her equipment. Latitude, the other geographical dimension, could always be found from the sun at noon, or the Pole-star at night; but to find the longitude necessitated a very accurate time-keeper which was never allowed to run down and of which the error on Greenwich time was known accurately to a second from day to day.

Since in the knowledge of a ship's position at sea lies the safety of the ship the responsibility for the care of and the regular winding of the chronometers was always paramount - not only for the officers, but also for the men.

And how easy it is to forget to wind a watch or a clock - we all know that, But chronometers must not be forgotten - and, moreover, they must be wound at the same time each day. So the problem of clock forgetfulness was overcome by the simple process of requiring a Colour Sergeant, to follow the navigating officer (whose duty it is to wind the chronometers) like a shadow from eight a.m. onwards until the job has been done. Once they are wound, the "shadow" reports to the captain – "Chronometers wound" - a simple report but one which, in the old days before the advent of wireless time-signals, held in its grasp the safety of all on board. Even to-day, with wireless  pips" going almost every half-hour from one station or another, the tradition of safety is maintained and the report continues.