SEA SCHOOLMASTERS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3143, 13 November 1922, Page 2

SEA SCHOOLMASTERS.

All vessels must be able to "speak" at sea. Important issues hang on the use of those multi-colored flags that may be seen flying from the mast of some tramp steamer. Ships' officers' get a certain amount of training in this work, but it is left for the ships of His Majesty's Navy to complete their education. A cruiser picks up a merchant vessel at sea and signals her: "I wish to exercise you in signals." There is no need for either craft to stop ; the signalling can be done just as easily at top speed. The merchant vessel signifies her approval, and the talk logins. Generally speaking, it matters not on what lines such a. talk proceeds. The phrases' used by the instructor may he quite meaningless; it is the practice that counts. The great thing is ''that the merchant vessel shall be able to signal fluently and quickly. That .s where her tutor conies in. There is nothing about signalling that the Navy does not know, and she is an equally good schoolmaster. In a few lessons a tramp steamer picks up quite a number of excellent hints, and that without delaying her voyage one bit. In time of war warships look to tramp steamers to give them useful information on many points. That i.s only possible by long-distance signalling. Again, a tramp steamer probably takes her older in time erf war from a warship, and it will be a bad thing for her if she is unable to read the signals sent out. Ships always flags when speaking. Most of them carry wireless, of course, but this is not generally used for ordinary intercourse. Many ships have no installation and must fall back on the (lags of the international code. At night they signal by means of lamps. The Morse code is used then, and this is an even more difficult- form of communication. Although our merchant sailors may never attain the proficiency of warship sailors in signalling, they are able to learn quite a, lot from their big grey schoolmasters out there on the lonely sea-lanes where all is quiet.