HARBOUR SIGNALS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXV, Issue 129, 2 June 1934, Page 17

HARBOUR SIGNALS.

NEW CODE DEVISED. MOUNT VICTORIA STATION. At the signal station on Mount Victoria which was reopened yesterday, a system of signalling by. flags and by the cone na<l bar will again be used, as it was before the signal station was removed to King's wharf three years ago, but the codes will be different, as the international flag code has since been altered, while the old cone aiui bar code, devised in the days when most of the vessels using >he port were sailing ships, has become obsolete. Under the modified system of day signalling, square flags surmounted by the Auckland Harbour Board's blue and red pennant will bo flown at the masthead, but the cone and bar system will also be used. The square or denoting flags, which were not used at the King's wharf station, consist of every letter in tho alphabet, with the exception of C. The letter A will denote a British warship, B a foreign warship, D a vessel from Great Britain, E Western Canada, P from Kastern Canada, G Australia, H India, I Africa, J Pacific Islands, K Nauru or Ocean Island, 1/ Western U.S. America, M Eastern U.S. America, N South America, O Japan, P Java, Q Opua, R Cisborne or Napier, S Wellington, T Wanganui or New Plymouth. U Lvttelton or Timaru, V Dunedin, W * Bluff. X Wcstpoit or Greymoutb. Y New Zealand Government vessel, and Z vessel in tow.

A cone hoisted half-way up on the western yardarm with a bar "hove it will denote a steamer outside of Tiiitiri. and when the bar is beneath the cone it will indicate that a steamer has been signalled inside Tiiitiri. When a sailing vessel is reported outside of Tiiitiri a cone with a bar above it will bo hoisted high on the eastern yardarm. If a sailing vessel is inside Tiritiri the bar will be beneath the cone. A vessel coastwise will be signalled by a cone hoisted halfway on tho eastern yardarm with the code flag C above it. This system is simpler than that formerly and for this reason is regarded as a considerable improvement.

From the Mount Victoria station the signalman on duty can see the whole of the harbour. A vessel will be timed to arrive in the harbour when it crosses a* imaginary line between Mount Victoria flagpole and Resolution Point. The first vessel to be so timed since the re-estab-lishment of the Mount Victoria signal station was the Taniwha, which sailed for Paeroa shortly after midnight.