How many members around who sailed in the late 1940's - 1960's
and familiar with the old 'aldis lamps' ?
Heading down channel and passing St Catherine's, I.O.W........you would be flashed (for a better term ! )...'What Ship' ?
You would give ship's name, where from and where to !...(Hippy)
Cheers....Glan
Best reply to "What ship" we once got was from the JVO, he just switched on his name light which took up the whole bridge deck space, think it was johan van den oldenbrand, dutch passenger ship, excuse my spelling.
Another was when sailing on Shaw Savills "Alaric", after giving our name destination etc and asking "What Ship" got back the answer "SNAP". It was the UK submarine HMS "Alaric"
Ern Barrett
Then there was the flag signal made by the Dutch salvage tug 'Clyde' while towing to a British man-o'war who had closed to have a look at the casualty.
"CEL TIC 1" in one hoist
and "AJAX 2" on another.
It probably took the matelots some time
to decode that message - there was no reply.
Usually got signalled approaching Panama Canal on the Pacific side with the "what ship Where bound" Waited for it on approach, but when the signal started I couldn't make out a word - asked for a repeat - message: good morning what ship etc. Memo to me - don't assume things will always be the same!
Always used to like working ships on the Aldis lamp.
After the last watch (I was R/O) I'd go next door to have a cuppa and go out onto the wing of the bridge and if I saw a ship I'd call her on the lamp and have a chat.
On one occasion I was called to the bridge to see if I could make any sense out of some flashing from a small ship a distance away. The weather in mid-Atlantic was atrocious, it was broad daylight and she was disappearing almost completely into toughs. After flashing 'VHF' many times I eventually got her on Channel 16. Long long time ago but I seem to remember she was the Hanne Tholstrup. She was looking for a weather report which we supplied. We kept in touch for a while and we relayed regular weather reports to her until we eventually lost touch and she became just a memory...
I just found a picture of the Hanne Tholstrup on Photoship - now I wonder if that's the one...
during the 60 early 70's I was a signalman based at Fort Gilkicker Gosport. We being, besides a Pompey Dockyard station, was also Lloyds Sig Station,We worked mainly with Merchant shipping passing through the Solent (between the Forts + So'ton and Fawley). Our main means of communicating those days was by Signal Lamp and Aldis. Had many a vessel thank us for giving their bridge younger staff, the opportunity to try their hand at using the light. I joined the RFA later part 1974 as signalman //yours aye mike
during the 60 early 70's I was a signalman based at Fort Gilkicker Gosport. We being, besides a Pompey Dockyard station, was also Lloyds Sig Station,We worked mainly with Merchant shipping passing through the Solent (between the Forts + So'ton and Fawley). Our main means of communicating those days was by Signal Lamp and Aldis. Had many a vessel thank us for giving their bridge younger staff, the opportunity to try their hand at using the light. I joined the RFA later part 1974 as signalman //yours aye mike
I knew Gilkicker well as a kid. During my cadet training my Morse code was not brilliant so my Dad put me in touch with a relative of his who was a signalman at Gilkicker. When I met up with him I found he was an absolute double of Sidney James.
At sea I found the US Navy the worst for signal manners. One carrier tried to call me after it has passed my beam, using a red light aldis and expected me to reply while in a very busy traffic zone. Also on the VHF they would never refer to a ship as a ship - it was a "Unit" and a navigation light was (I forget the actual terminology she used) but the poor Filipino had no idea what the heck she was trying to tell him, something like "Your units electronic directional indicator is extinguished"
At the old HMCG station (in the old lighthouse building) at St Anne's Head we had a 10" and an aldis lamps. What ship and where bound for Lloyds and pilot messages for Milford pilots. With the height and a set of German Doppler binocs we could speak to ships well offshore
Standing on the bridge wing on a beautiful calm night off the Viet Nam coast, lost in reverie. Then the darkness was suddenly torn apart by a blinding light ! A US seaplane had sneaked upwind on me and switched on his special daylight floodlight so I was totally blinded. Then he switched it off and proceeded to bombard me with a stream of aldis morse whilst circling around the ship. This meant that to try and read what he was saying I had either to run from side to side of the bridge - not really feasible especially with the Old Man blissfully asleep beneath the wheelhouse - or pass the lamp up to the Monkey Island, which I did and spent an entertaining few minutes on the compass platform spinning like a winking lighthouse !
The sneaking up procedure with the light happened a few more times on subsequent trips so it must have been an operational procedure.
An earlier post talked about Southend Pier calling up ships by lamp; as a cadet I remember it well at night, first making the reply and then having to go for'd and hang a cargo cluster over the bow so the ship's name was illuminated, presumably for the pilot boat 'cos they wouldn't be able to see it from Southend Pier!
I sailed with a fellow cadet whose morse was awful. Much later, I was told he was uncert 3rd mate on the MacAndrews ship Pacheco (circa late 1960s) who had to reply to Southend Pier. He just sent a load of dots and dashes and returned to the wheelhouse. Shortly afterward they were called up again, so the master sent him out to repeat the exercise. Eventually they gave up but did submit a report to some higher authority which eventually reached the ship. By that time he was uncert 3rd mate on the Willowbank!!
On a few large tankers and an OBO the Aldis was used every night. Hard to tell what the weather was happening at the forward end.... to see if any seas was coming over the bow. Master's night orders. This was before 'Derbyshire' but the master had experience of weather damage on an OBO.
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