NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Visual Signalling Retired (forward)
From: Tony S
Date: 1997 Jul 17, 12:30 AM
From: Tony S
Date: 1997 Jul 17, 12:30 AM
The following is forwarded from another mail list. Note: Boatanchors in this case refers to "old time radios with tubes" ========================= Visual Signalling Retired ========================= Date: Wed, 16 Jul 1997 22:54:26 -0400 (EDT) From- Jerry ProcTo: boatanchors@theporch.com Hello Dear BA'ers, Although not directly related to Boatanchors, some of you may be interested in knowning that that Royal Navy has retired light signalling by Morse code. Here is a copy of the article that I'm submitting to a few local newsletters. Can anyone tell me if the USN still uses visual CW or has it too been retired? ************************************************************************* BRITISH ADMIRALTY RETIRES VISUAL MORSE CODE Edited by Jerry Proc (From an article by Andrew Gilligan of The Daily Telegraph, London, July 13/97) After 130 years, the Royal Navy is turning out the lights on visual Morse code. Masthead signalling lanterns - used by warships to communicate with each other through some of the most famous naval battles in history - have been declared redundant by Admiralty chiefs in an era of secure communications. Recruits will no longer be trained to operate the Morse buttons by which messages could be flashed to other ships, and the lights themselves will be gradually decommissioned. The idea of flashing dots and dashes from a lantern was first put in to practice by Captain, later Vice Admiral, Philip Colomb in 1867. His original code, which the Navy used for seven years, was not identical with Morse, but Morse was eventually adopted with the addition of several special signals. Flashing lights were the second generation of signalling in the Royal Navy, after the flag signals most famously used to spread Nelson's rallying-cry before the Battle of Trafalgar. Ships will still retain Aldis lamps either side of the bridge, however, but signalling with these is complicated, involving transmitting signals in relays. Paul Elmer, of Naval Support Command, said: "Morse is just not used operationally any more. We have got much better, cleverer and more sexy stuff." The move, announced in a Defence Council Instruction, recognises that the lights have not been widely used at sea "for some considerable time". But a combination of inertia and respect for tradition means that nearly all large Naval ships are still equipped with them. Mr Elmer said: "Their heyday was the two world wars when they were used a lot for close convoy work. They were quite small and you could flash to other ships in the group without the enemy seeing." The lamps, which were omni-directional, were used to give commands to every ship in the group at once. The lamps' advantage - and one of the reasons why they have survived so long - was that, unlike radio communications, they could not be intercepted by enemy vessels. "They were at their best during radio silence. You had to be quite close to see them," said Mr Elmer. Now, however, the Navy has several secure communications systems that can send vast quantities of information between ships without risk of interception - and at infinitely higher speed than a man flicking a light on and off in dots and dashes. New-generation warships are increasingly equipped with computers that continuously share information with others nearby, and with shore bases, along invisible data highways. Regards, -------------------------------- Jerry Proc VE3FAB HMCS HAIDA Naval Museum, Toronto hrc@sympatico.ca Web: www3.sympatico.ca/hrc/haida ================================ =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-= =-= TO UNSUBSCRIBE, send this message to majordomo@ronin.com: =-= =-= navigation =-= =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=--=-=