What exactly do the bells symbolize other than the fact that they wanted to put them on to the local church? I'm not a Christian, so I don't know if it has any religious connotations. And what is that building down there that we see below? And lastly, why did Terry want to check the radar first to see if there wasn't anything there?
shareTerry and the guy heard the bells, so he rushed to the boat's radar room to see if any craft was nearby that could be producing the bells pealing through a speaker or whatnot.
He could not find ANY land based source for the sound of the bells, so her alerted Jan and they went on deck to see what was up.
The bells symbolized that Bess was in a much better place than the rejected sinners section of the ground allotted to her by her awful kirk elders.
It shows she saved Jan (presuming her idea of the miracle did occur through her actions); so Jan saved HER by not allowing her to be sentenced to eternity in the sinner's grave--where she did not belong because everything she did she did from love, not sin.
They buried her at sea, as we saw, then the kirk bells that she so loved but church refused to have in their kirk, were shown to forever be pealing over her grave site. She got her bells for eternity, which she'd not have had in the sinner cemetery.
Jan ended up giving her her beloved bells, which we saw the talking about earlier in the film.
She loved the bells. And now that Jan rescued her from the kirk elders, Bess had her bells for eternity over her burial place in the sea.