The ship's bell S.M.S. Westfalen

65 cm high, this ship’s bell made of crucible cast steel bears a white painted band with the inscription ‘S.M.S. Westfalen’. It has an eventful history. For centuries, ship’s bells have been an acoustic signalling instrument cast individually for each ship concerned. The Westfalen, a warship of the German navy, was used as part of the High Seas Fleet in the First World War. With a crew of over 1,000 men, it measured 146 meters long. The abbreviation ‘S.M.S.’ stood for ‘Seiner Majestät Schiff’ or ‘His Majesty’s Ship’ in the German Empire. The battleship was deployed in the North Sea in 1914 and was alerted during the Battle of Doggerbank in January 1915, though it was unable to intervene. It also partook in the operation in Riga Bay in the Baltic Sea. The Westfalen was part of the contingent in the Battle of Jutland in 1916, the largest naval battle in history, from which it returned with only minor losses. The Westfalen was surrendered to Great Britain as part of reparations and scrapped in 1924.