There’s just something about a ship’s bell, something almost totemic. Perhaps it’s because down through the ages, from the Age of Sail to the Age of Steel, the architecture of seafaring vessels may have metamorphosed drastically, but always there was the bell, that evocative nerve center of on-board activity that resounded its messages in a variety of functions. The mere sound of one can stir memories years later for those who served at sea. (There’s even a ringtone you can get—a seasoned salt we know has it on his cellphone.) As the Naval History and Heritage Command puts it, “Bells remain a tangible reminder of the history, heritage, and accomplishments of the naval service.”
And when the bell hails from a storied craft, all the more specially does it resonate. Such is the case with this pealing piece of the past, the ship’s bell from the USS Trigger (SS-237), one of the most successful U.S. submarines of World War II. In her 12 patrols from 1942 to 1945, she received 11 battle stars as well as Presidential Unit Citations for three of her war patrols. She is tied for seventh place on the confirmed-sinkings list, having sunk 18 enemy ships totaling 86,552 tons. And she went down fighting, sunk by the enemy on 28 March 1945. She has an added significance for the Naval Institute: Captain Edward “Ned” Beach Jr., for whom our headquarters, Beach Hall, is named, himself sang the Trigger’s praises in his acclaimed 1952 book Submarine!
The Trigger bell, now in the collection of a Naval Institute member, has an interesting history. First off, one might ask, how did the bell survive the sub’s sinking? It did so because bells would be removed from subs and stored during war patrols. But technically speaking, all such bells remain the permanent property of the U.S. Navy—things get sticky, though, when it becomes clear the Navy itself wasn’t always so strict about this policy. The current owner purchased the Trigger bell at a Christie’s marine sale in New York City in 2006. The bell had been offered earlier, but it had been withdrawn when the Naval Investigative Service declared it contraband.
Not so fast. The vendor, it turns out, had purchased it at a Navy surplus sale in Pearl Harbor in 1946. And he had been smart enough to retain the bill of sale, proving his legitimate ownership. And so the Christie’s auction was cleared to proceed. Clearly, the naval mind-set about such objects had been different amid the swirl of events in 1946 than it was in 2006. But the very fact there was contention over it simply proves how treasured a relic, how potent a symbol, a ship’s bell can be.