January-February - Air Defense Artillery

1943 IDENTIFICATION OF l\1ERCHANT SHIPS 29
~engine amidships) section for the type F-l\ll\1. This
ship, the index sho\\'s, would be located somewhere
on pages 7-16.
IDENTIFICATION BY TYPING. l\lasts, funnels, kingposts,and
engines are the type factors to be nrst classifiedby
the observer. The position of the engines is the
leastdifficult to determine. The position of the engines
is almost universally either amidships or aft and is betrayedby
the location of the stacks or funnels. If thesE
are located amidships, the engines are located amidships.
If the engines are located in the aft section of the
boat, that is where the stacks or funnels will be seen.
Figure I shows the application of this step in typing a
vessel. Ships with engines amidships are designated by
the symbol A in the drawing over the amidships sectionof
the vessel. When the engines are aft, the symbol
B is placed over the aft section of the ship. In writing
the factor symbols the engine's location is written nrst
and followed by a dash, after which the outer symbols
are written in the sequence and number of their occurrence.
M M
NOF-IdMM
A
II
.'._L__ ~
I
--I
...---\ -- .... I
__ ..LL
\' ~
Figure I.-Method of designating engines .
Figure 2 shows the application of funnel typing in
the identincation system. This step is concerned only
with the location and number of funnels. In typing a
vessel, funnels are designated by the symbol F above
the section of the ship in which they are located and in
the same sequence and number (see ng. 2). However,
some ships have no funnels. These are designated as
NOP. Such a vessel is illustrated in ngure 2. Masts are
classifiedin a similar style, with the number and loca-
MM-F
J.l..
F M
F-J,l J,l-FF-M
Figure 2.-Method of designating funnels and masts.
8 III
tion of the masts of the vessel clearl\' indicated bv the
symboll\ 1 as in figure 2. - -
The kingposts of a ship are important in the identification
of merchant ships, but of all the factors they are
considered the most difficult to identify. They are
short, \'ertical, mastlike structures that support the ends
of booms used in the loading and unloading of cargo.
Their number and location are designated (see fig. 3A)
by the symbol K. Figures 3 and 4 show the application
of the typing portion of the identincation system. Figure
3A portrays a ship that might be a freighter, passenger
ship, or collier, as far as its typing indicates. This vessel
is typed A-MKFKM, vI,hichmeans that it is a ship with
the engine amidships; and that, from bow to stern, in
order, you \vill see a mast, kingpost, funnel, kingpost,
and a mast.
A
~
TYPE-A-MKFKM
TYPl"-I'J('I