MARLOW NEWSLETTER - Marlow Navigation Training Center

Semaphore Signals
3rd Issue
During the early sixties a young gentleman,
just after graduating from his High
School, joined a general cargo ship at
Marseille in the capacity of Deck Cadet.
The youngster had no seafaring or nautical
school background and actually knew
nothing about a ship. Consequently for
him this was the first time he ever traveled
abroad.
He presented his papers and letters of introduction
to the Chief Officer, who welcomed
him onboard, briefed him on his
future duties, highlighted to him the DOs
and the DON’Ts and directed him to his
accommodation. He was instructed to
take a rest for the remaining day, settle
down and get acquainted with his surroundings,
the safeties, meal hours, etc
and report for work at 8:00 am sharp the
next morning at the Deck Office.
So, the youngster reported at the Deck
Office five minutes to eight and to his
amazement the Chief Officer turned up
at 8:30 am. Shortly afterwards the Bosun
appeared and the cadet was instructed to
go along with him and work under him
till further notice.
Two weeks passed since he has joined and
finally the vessel completed her cargo operations
and set sail for her remaining itinerary
to ports like Livorno, Barcelona,
Valencia, New York, Veracruz, Houston,
New Orleans, Miami, and back to Europe.
The Bosun did not lose much time
in giving tasks to the youngster, amongst
other, the cleaning of crew toilets, clean-
Dec 2008
ing of paint brushes, arrangement of
ropes and wires at the forecastle store, etc.
There was, however, the privileged task as
well. The cadet was designated the task of
learning the Semaphore code in order to
be ready to send a semaphore message to
the Gibraltar Signaling Station when they
cross westbound in a few days and was
asked to report to the 3rd Officer to get
the Code and the semaphore flags. The
practice, of course, would have to be after
working hours.
The young cadet felt excited to be entrusted
to such an important task and engaged
himself in serious learning of the
semaphore signaling.
The big day came when the cadet was
called upon to carry out his important
task. Around midnight the Third Officer
rushed into the cadet’s cabin and noisily
awakened him shouting: “C’mon boy, you
must hurry to the bridge. The ship is passing
Gibraltar Strait in 30 minutes”.
The lad hurried in his clothes and set off
to the bridge, holding the Semaphore
pendants. On entering the darkened
wheelhouse, the Second Officer received
him and immediately started giving him
instructions. He showed him the distance
flashing of Europa Point lighthouse and
explained to him that he has to position
himself at the anchor mast platform on
the forecastle and as soon as the vessel is
abreast of Europa Point lighthouse he
should start signaling the practiced text
(name of vessel, call sign, port of departure,
destination and ETA).
The cadet rushed off to his task but not
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