THE TERSE statement issued by the British Admiralty (Naval Institute PROCEEDINGS, January, 1935) regarding successful contacts between His Majesty’s ships and British merchant ships should provide considerable thoughtfulness in the equivalent services of this country. It is quite useless to dismiss the statement by saying that it is simply because the British Merchant Service is larger by some thousand or more vessels, or that His Majesty’s ships are more prevalent in the sea lanes due to their bases and distant possessions. It is necessary fully to understand the underlying causes from which results this vast and almost pitiful difference in efficient communications between these two services and our own.
Let us read an excerpt from the official books regarding the respective authorities controlling the issuance of licenses to masters and mates of merchant ships.
In the General Rules and Regulations of the United States Steamship Inspection Service the signaling requirements are as follows:
Master of steam vessels (ocean)—signaling by semaphore and blinker.
Chief mate of steam vessels (ocean)—signaling by semaphore.
Second mate of steam vessels (ocean)—signaling by blinker.
Third mate of steam vessels (ocean)—none.
No given speed is required. The examination is written. In addition to this, the candidate is given a card which requires from him the answers to about 16 questions dealing with the Signal Manual, i.e., use of repeaters and answering pennant, etc. He is given a box of crayons with which he draws the flags of the code and numerals. Time limit—none. He does not handle the Signal Manual.
From the British Board of Trade:
- Candidates for master, chief mate, and second mate will be examined orally on the Morse Code and semaphore, the International Code of Signals, and the Signal Manual.
- They shall be required to read flag signals on sight so far as to name the flags comprising the hoist.
- They shall know the use of repeaters and all single flag meanings.
- They shall be required to signal words not included in the vocabulary of the Code.
- A knowledge of distant signals and their meanings shall be required.
Candidates for master, chief mate, and second mate examined in signaling must be able to send and receive:
6 words a minute in semaphore
8 words a minute in Morse Code
6 words a minute by flag waving (Morse)
Candidates for extra master and voluntary examination must do 12 words at Morse, 10 words at semaphore, 10 words at flag waving. The examination is by the mark system and occupies about 1 1/2hours.
The most pertinent fact that is drawn to our attention is that whereas our examination is written, the British is oral and by the intensely practical method of giving the candidate a signal manual, a pair of semaphore flags, and a Morse lamp to show and prove his ability. All of the seafaring European countries are the same in their requirements for their deck officers.
The officers of the German, Scandinavian, and Belgian ships are thoroughly competent in their intership communications and they must also be able to read, speak, and write the English language.
The attempt to tabulate the signaling requirements of the principal European countries is no easy matter. Germany and Italy train their officers during a 4-year apprenticeship, in signaling. The Scandinavian countries and Germany require an examination in radiotelegraphy for a first certificate. In a letter from an Italian naval officer, I learn that the speed is high, though not so high as that required by either Germany or Japan. Through it all there is presented to us the unpalatable fact that the European countries are ahead of us in their training of officers for the merchant marine.
This writer served in British ships during the whole period of European hostilities and saw only too clearly the rapid growth in importance of communications in war time. In all classes of ships, tankers, troop ships, and ammunition ships, whether in convoy or steaming alone, the officers did their own signaling. All available signal ratings were sent to Reserve and active service ships—that is, the patrol ships, sweepers, auxiliary vessels, and the regular men-of-war. When convoys were formed, and the need of assistance on the bridge became acute, the other officers of watch turned out to help. Who can ever forget the time-honored signals that were hoisted so frequently by the cruiser in charge of the convoy?
It was hard sometimes—the long early morning wait for the “Orders for the day,” the long messages by semaphore, the score or more hoists to answer; but after a while it became a routine duty. The thing that made it easier was that we were confident of ourselves and felt that the months spent at school would stand us in good stead. The fortunate part of it was that we had had time to prepare; the German Fleet lay within its defenses, and the seas had been cleared of raiders.
Next time it will be different. We will need our communications the day after war is declared. Supposing that a few days after outbreak of war, because of urgent national necessity, every available large ship in port was ordered to a distant possession. No time for arming each vessel! That would mean weeks of moving ships to shipyards and re-enforcing decks! Gun crews! Ammunition lockers! A thousand details! No time to load the ships!— Troops! Supplies! Planes! Ammunition! Trucks and tanks! Signalmen! How many? Three for each ship and one only to a watch! Thirty ships—ninety signalmen! Impossible! We need every available man for our “active service” ships, our patrols and auxiliaries.
So there we stand: a convoy, cruisers, a 2,000-mile voyage, signals by the score every hour, strings of flags, semaphore, night orders, zigzag, enemy in vicinity, keep sharp lookout, close, scatter, full speed, reduce speed to 70 revolutions, increase to 120. Who is going to read them? The merchant officer? No—he can’t! He is not trained for it. He barely knows the code flags, hasn’t seen a hoist in months, and knows nothing of semaphore. Morse lamp? Impossible. The convoy would look like Broadway at night and not a ship would survive. What is the answer?
In every major seaport of the United States, signaling schools should be established for the use and training of the merchant marine officer. The school should be equipped with flags, pole and yardarm, semaphore flags, Morse lamp, and above all, competent instructors of the United States Navy. It should be open from 9:00 A.M. to 9:00 P.M. Each student should be given a card stating:
- Name
- Rank on ship
- Grade of license
- Name of ship
- Date of entering class
- Degree of efficiency at end of last lesson
- Receiving speed
- Knowledge of Signal Manual
This would give both the Navy and the United States Steamship Inspection Service a permanent record of each man and would give the candidate himself a record of his own qualifications. When, in the opinion of the instructor, the student was able to signal as required by the regulations, his card should be so stamped. This card should carry him through the United States Steamship Inspection Service examinations without further questions on signaling.
Just 18 years after a war when the ships of a dozen warring nations steamed in convoy and when signaling was of vital importance every minute of the day, we find ourselves still untrained, still fumbling with flags when we meet a cruiser.
Let us not weep for the day when the main skysail yarder, bound out from a channel port to Callao for nitrates or homeward from Australia to “Falmouth for Orders” backed her main yard to ask the smart mail ship to “Report me all’s well.” The book was kept in the skipper’s drawer and the flags under the settee in his cabin. The apprentice boys laid aft, watch below and all, and the flags went up to the spanker gaff after much sweating and poring over the signal book.
“Now let me see,” says the horny- handed mate, “ ‘Report me all’s well’— ‘U.R.Z.’ All right, you young . . .! Up she goes!”
“Now then—‘Forty-two days out’— Code flag, under ‘V.R.’ ”
“ ‘Will you show me your Greenwich mean time?’—Er—er—yes, ‘X.N.’ ”
It took nearly an hour and the skipper of the liner fumed and cursed at the delay. Then she was away with three long blasts and a dip of her ensign. The yards were hauled around, the flags rolled up neatly and stowed away for another three months or more.
You say, “That’s all changed now with radio time ticks.” No—it’s still the same. If you ever saw the stumbling and scrambling on the bridge of a steamer to get the flags out of the pigeon-holed rack under the deck head of the wheelhouse, and the fumbling of inexperienced, untrained fingers through the signal book to find the answer to the string of flags that fluttered at the signaling yard of the cruiser, you wouldn’t say it had changed. The first incident took place 23 years ago off the Canary Islands, the second in 1934 off California on a vessel in which this writer was serving. Each signal of the sailing ship took five minutes, each one of the steamer, three minutes. Not a vast improvement, surely!
The standard equipment of any U. S. merchant vessel of 1,000 gross tons or over should consist of one complete set of code flags and repeaters, fitted with snap hooks and rings of an approved type, two sets of semaphore flags, an adequate number of signal halyards fitted with snap hooks and rings, leading to the navigating bridge or flying bridge in such a manner that their use would not interfere with the safe navigation of the ship. The code flags should be kept in such a place and in such a manner as to be instantly available. The equipment should also include an efficient searchlight, fitted with either Scott’s shutter or Morse key.
The merchant seaman is essentially a peace-time product and, according to international law, a noncombatant. He can and will man the ships as well in war as in peace, but in the economic order of things there is no incentive for him to make any effort at learning signals. The only seaman who can be of any use to the ship, while signaling, is a man who has had previous naval experience, and then not all of them. So it devolves upon the licensed personnel, the deck officers, to improve their efficiency in this respect if they are to maintain their standing as officers in the eyes of the Navy and their own ship’s company.