Watchstanding regulate the sailors' duty watches and for other purposes (see main article). Unlike civil clock bells, the strikes of a ship's bell do not accord to the number of the hour. Instead, there are eight bells, one for each half-hour of a four-hour watch. Bells would be struck every half-hour, and in a pattern of pairs for easier counting, with any odd bells at the end of the sequence. Watchstanding Watchstanding, or watchkeeping, in nautical terms concerns the division of qualified personnel to operate a ship continuously. On a typical seafaring vessel, be it naval or merchant, personnel keep watch
End of message of text"). EOM is similar in concept to the EOF, or end of file. The EOF is placed at the end of a file to signify to the user where the end of file is. End of message End of message or EOM (as in "(EOM)" or "<EOM>") signifies the end of a message, often an e-mail message. The subject of an e-mail message may contain such an abbreviation to signify that all content is in the subject line so that the message itself does not need to be opened (e.g., "No classes Monday (EOM)" or "Midterm delayed <EOM>"). This