Signalman 1 & C - Historic Naval Ships Association

3. The top of 5 and 7, and the bottom of 2 arestraight lines. The number 1 also has a straight lineunder it, slightly below the stem, to distinguish it fromthe letter I, and the zero has a bar diagonally through it(Ø) to distinguish it from the letter O. A horizontal barthrough the riser of the letter helps prevent its beingmistaken for the numeral 2.The heavy dot at the end of each of the light lines,which parallel each letter and figure, indicates thestarting point for the stroke. This dot and arrowindicate the direction in which the letter or figure isdrawn. The numerals 1, 2, and 3 placed just besideeach of the light lines indicate the number and thesequence in which the strokes of a letter or figure aremade.Practice printing the 26 alphabet letters and 10numerals until you can make each character easily andlegibly. Use a pencil with a good point, print eachcharacter carefully and accurately, and take care tohave your printing evenly spaced. REMEMBER, thekey to legible writing is practice.The Message BlankOnce you have mastered the phonetic alphabet andpracticed the principles of legible printing, the nextstep is to learn about the message blank. As illustratedin figure 1-5, a typical signal bridge message blank hasspaces for the different parts of the message (thedifferent parts are discussed in chapter 3). It is alsobroken down so that each group (for example, acomplete word or code group) of the text has a separatespace. This aids the counting of the groups. Thewell-trained recorder can tell at a glance if the messageis complete.FLAGBAG OPERATOR"Stand by your bag" is a statement that isfrequently heard on a signal bridge. As the flagbagoperator, it is your duty to ready your flagbag.To become an efficient flagbag operator takeswork and practice; you must become familiar with thecontents of the flagbag to the point that you can closeyour eyes and be able to locate the various flags.Figure 1-5.—Visual message blank.1-4