SEA NOISES

Evening Star, Issue 18161, 29 December 1922, Page 1

SEA NOISES

WHEN VISIBILITY IS POOR. There can bo tew noisier spots than the deck of a vessel groping its way along one of the busy sea routes in a fog or when heavy snow or rain storms make visibility poor, writes a nautical correspondent iu the ‘Daily .Mail.’ Sirens, whistles, fog horns, bells, and drums contribute to what to the landsman is a mere chaos of mournful sounds. But to the mariner each, sound has a distinct meaning and gives him definite information. Each vessel in a fog must make its allotted noise, and even tho lad who hammers a biscuit tin in a dinghy is carrying out the regulations, which prescribe that a boat of less than twenty tons shall make “some efficient sound signal.” Broadly, steamships use a siren or whistle, and sailing vessels a fog horn. The liner, for instance, as she feels her way through the darkness, must announce her presence by one prolonged blast of her siren,, from four to sis seconds in duration eveiy two minutes, the recognised signal of a steamsliip under way. If the captain decides that lie cannot safely proceeds, and stops his engines, he must change hie signal to two prolonged blasts, with an interval of Ibco between them, every two minutes. If he anchors he must silence the siren and send' his message by th© rapid clanging of a bell for sseo every minute. A signal which always causes, a captain anxiety is one long and two short blasts on a siren every two minutes. It may warn him of one of three things, each fraught with danger for his vessel. It may be the signal of a vessel under way but out of control—a dangerous neighbor at any time, but a deadly menace in a fog—it may mean a ship engaged in laying or picking up cable, or it may indicate that beta noir of the fog-bound mariner—a Ship that hap another in tow. Tho sailing vessel in a fog makes far more noise than the steamship. At least once every minute she must sound her fog horn according to regulations—one blast when she is on the starboard tack, two blasts in quick succession on the port tack, and three blasts when the wind is abaft the beam. Two or three sailing vessels in a fog bank will make as much oomraition as a fleet of steamships.