# Help please in identifying this object?



## john shaw (Jun 23, 2006)

Hi all. Though a longstanding member, I've been busy for quite a while, selling up and moving home from France to Derbyshire then again to ***bria,so I've rarely visited SN over the past couple of years. Having moved to Maryport in ***bria, a once-thriving port but now just a few small fishing vessels and a marina, I have begun volunteering in the excellent ,small Maritime Museum here.Due to my seafaring background,I was asked if I had any idea of the name of or use to which a longstanding "mystery" object in the collection would be put. As much of the stuff goes back to sailing ship days, and I don't (!) it has me flummoxed. So, can anyone on here identify and explain this thing? Thanks for any help..........


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## ART6 (Sep 14, 2010)

Could it be a weight attached to the bottom of a gill net end pole to keep the net panels vertical?


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## Frank P (Mar 13, 2005)

I think that it could be the striker/ringer from inside a large bell...

Frank


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## Erimus (Feb 20, 2012)

Frank P said:


> I think that it could be the striker/ringer from inside a large bell...
> 
> Frank


+1

geoff


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## Farmer John (Feb 22, 2012)

I am trying to think what a bell that size would be doing in Maryport, but certainle that was my first thought.


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## john shaw (Jun 23, 2006)

thanks- my first thoughts too were a bell clapper, hanging from the hook and a rope spliced to the eye-- but I figured that was too mundane! Please someone make it out to be much more obscure and interesting than that......


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## Farmer John (Feb 22, 2012)

Ockham's razor, clapper like piece of metal probably is clapper.


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## Robert Hilton (Feb 13, 2011)

Definitely the tongue of a bell. The eye on the bottom (large) end suggests it was designed to have a lanyard attached, although such an eye isn't uncommon. A big bell with a deep tone could have belonged to a large important vessel, a church or a bell buoy. The interest would be in the bell.


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## howardang (Aug 3, 2008)

Erimus said:


> +1
> 
> geoff


+2

I favour the idea of it being the clapper of a bell buoy, hence the maritime museum context.

Howard


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## MikeK (Jul 3, 2007)

Definitely go with the ship's bell clapper supporters

Mike


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## Robert Hilton (Feb 13, 2011)

I prefer to call it a tongue because "clapper" is used for a hinged hammer operated by a light line or wire to strike the outer rim of a bell that doesn't swing. This is done in some churches to save stress on the belfry structure. If there is a full peal of bells the lines can be led to a control point and tunes can be played. However this is not campanology in my book.


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

Frank P said:


> I think that it could be the striker/ringer from inside a large bell...
> 
> Frank


hello, this is if i think it is a bell clapper for a large cast iron bell. I am hesitant to say a ships bell, as these were usually bronze/brass and mounted on the ships prow for ringing and strinking in fogged weather when the ship would be hove too,or progressing at dead slow. The bell would be used in addition to the ships whistle/ horn.
A ship generally had asmaller bell on the bridge external, for calling the deck watch, at times of emergency during a watch, or at 2,4, 8 bells.
The forecastles bell was rung also when the ship was at anchor , on anchor watch! Plus it would be rung when each fathom mark was passed the windlass drum as it was recovered or retrieved,to record the amount of anchor chain belayed..
Hows that for a little bunkum from an engineer??


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## david freeman (Jan 26, 2006)

Frank P said:


> I think that it could be the striker/ringer from inside a large bell...
> 
> Frank


hello, this is if i think it is a bell clapper for a large cast iron bell. I am hesitant to say a ships bell, as these were usually bronze/brass and mounted on the ships prow for ringing and strinking in fogged weather when the ship would be hove too,or progressing at dead slow. The bell would be used in addition to the ships whistle/ horn.
A ship generally had a smaller bell on the bridge external, for calling the deck watch, at times of emergency during a watch, or at 2,4, 6,8 bells.??? In the engine room webanged the blank flange!
The forecastles bell was rung also when the ship was at anchor , on anchor watch! Plus it would be rung when each fathom mark was passed the windlass drum as it was recovered or retrieved,to record the amount of anchor chain belayed..
Hows that for a little bunkum from an engineer??


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## garryNorton (Aug 6, 2018)

Looks like a clapper for a forecastle head bell which was unshipped when at sea so it was only rung when required during anchoring or in fog


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## Baz Thedad. (Aug 28, 2014)

*Good Grief*

It's a bell ringer.


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## Victor J. Croasdale (Nov 28, 2016)

I think that it is bell clapper. Looking at the size it's for a bell 16 - 18 inches tall, not particularly large. 
It's not a church bell as those are rung by swinging the bell, this has an eye for a rope. Similarly it's not a bell from a buoy either.


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## Al Viljoen (Aug 30, 2017)

*Clapper*

The Copper Clapper Caper

Joe Friday: “This is the city. Los Angeles, California. I work here…I’m a cop.”

“It was Tuesday, February 9. It was raining in Los Angeles. We were working robbery. Some people rob for pleasure. Some people rob because it’s there. You never know. I was working the day watch out of robbery when I got a call from the Acme School Bell Company.”
Victim: “There’s been a robbery.”
Friday: “Yes sir! What was it?”
Victim: “My clappers!”
Friday: “Your clappers?”
Victim: “Yeah, you know those things inside a bell that makes them clang?”
Friday: “The clangers?”
Victim: “That’s right! We call them the clappers in the business.”
Friday: “A clapper caper.”
Victim: “What’s that?”
Friday: “Nothing sir! Now can I have the facts? What kinds of clappers were stolen on this clapper caper?”
Victim: “They were copper clappers!”
Friday: “And where were they kept?”
Victim: “In the closet!”
Friday: “Uh huh, do you have any ideas who might have taken your copper clappers from the closet?”
Victim: “Well, I fired a man, and he swore he’d get even.”
Friday: “What was his name?”
Victim: “Claude Cooper!”
Friday: “You think it was him then?”
Victim: “That’s right! I think Claude Cooper copped my copper clapper kept in a closet.”
Friday: “You know where this Claude Cooper is from?”
Victim: “Yep! Cleveland.”
Friday: “That figures!”
Victim: “What makes it worse is that they were clean!”
Friday: “Clean copper clappers? Why do you think that Claude Cooper would cop your clean copper clappers kept in your closet?
Victim: “Only one reason!”
Friday: “What’s that?”
Victim: “He’s a kleptomaniac!”
Friday: “Who first discovered the copper clappers were copped?”
Victim: “My cleaning woman Clara Clifford!”
Friday: “That figures! Now let me see if I got the facts straight here. Cleaning woman Clara Clifford discovered your clean copper clappers kept in a closet were copped by Claude Cooper, a kleptomaniac from Cleveland. Now, is that about it?”
Victim: “One more thing. If I ever catch kleptomaniac Claude Cooper from Cleveland who copped my clean copper clappers from the closet…”
Friday: “Yes?”
Victim: “I’ll clobber him!”

Breaking news…Breaking news…
“We are reporting live from the county jail. Claude Cooper the kleptomaniac from Cleveland has been arrested and charged with the copper clapper caper. He has been put in a cell.”

Update:
Claude Cooper, the criminal from Cleveland, has been sentenced to six years from the copper clapper caper.
Remember…crime doesn’t pay!


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## pat m lawson (May 21, 2017)

(Applause)(Applause)(Applause)


Al Viljoen said:


> The Copper Clapper Caper
> 
> Joe Friday: “This is the city. Los Angeles, California. I work here…I’m a cop.”
> 
> ...


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## Keith Adams (Nov 5, 2006)

Hi guys, definitely a ship's bell clapper as it has both a partly open eye hanger ( for ready removal) at the upper end and a closed eye for a lanyard to be attached at the lower. Only the foc'sle head bell was so fitted as needfully had to be removed in heavy weather and replaced when foc'sle lookout was able to be reposted,and of course for anchoring and at anchor in poor visibility.
The bridge bell clapper was secured by just pulling the helmsman's lanyard tight and cleating off. We didn't want the foc'sle bell clanging away at random in heavy weather. A great big brass gong was used down aft when at anchor in poor visibility. Oh happy days ! Snowy.


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## seaman38 (Mar 16, 2016)

Definitely a ship's bell 'clapper' I have one exactly the same and although the bell is made from a brass and bronze mixture (1942) the clapper is made of cast iron and the open eye as stated previously is for unshipping when at sea. We normally used a small 'D' shackle to attach it, rather than trying to wiggle it from its 'U' cleat, as that could be frustrating in the confined space of the bell head. In all my years in the marine industry never referred to, or heard it referred to as a 'tongue', but then again we had our own nautical and naughty terms for all manner of things shipboard (and ashore [=P]). I took the ship to the breakers in China (1970's), but the owner told me I could keep the bell, landed it with the Harbour Master in Dubai who said he would get it to me in the UK, when he got back. True to his word he delivered it to my door about seven years later. Still gets polished but not as often as it did.


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## John Jarman (Sep 17, 2009)

seaman38 said:


> ........... Still gets polished but not as often as it did.


Mine Too........!!


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## Keith Adams (Nov 5, 2006)

I really coveted the wheelhouse bell on the mv "Losada" (PSNC) when she was heading for the breakers but they paid me off in Hull. Instead, I made off with one of the curved telegraph brass oil lamps ... like the bell clapper, I'll bet persons will come across one and wonder what the heck it is or used for ... I expect most to agree it to be horse and buggy oil lamp instead of what it actually is ! Cheers, Snowy


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## Alan Maggs (Jan 31, 2010)

hi john
Dead simple/clapper for ship's bell.
Going on the length of it it is most likely from a focsle head bell which would have had a removeable clapper.
Regards
Alan maggs


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