T&T: you may really hear a whistle

[Roger Lalonde]

OK, I will put in my nickels worth, I am a Coast Guard Auxiliary up here in
the St Lawrence river in Canada.

I was aboard a commercial ship a few years ago and the Pilot gave a one
whistle command to the Helmsman and the message got confused and he understood
to go starboard to starboard. Helmsman went 5 degrees to starboard while the
pilot observed on the rudder angle indicator and noticed it was going the
wrong way... HELL there was a lot of scrambling for a few seconds to correct
the issue. The mistake was that the Pilot always gave command as 5 degrees
starboard or five degrees port. The helmsman was new and thought he knew the
whistle signals.

My opinion... learn all you can, one whistle, two, one long and two short
(Master salute) and better five short or more (danger) one long every two
minutes (fog).

The signal is sometimes used in lack of time to explain stuff, and if you
understand what the signal means it can prevent disaster... I agree with
Coleen, the signals are not obsolete.

I have seen accidents where one said, "I gave you a signal" and the other said
"I never heard it!!"

I honestly do not care how you get the message across of your intentions,
However what I do care about is not to rely only on one way to communicate.
Use the radio, use your whistle signals, use hand signals or better use your
charts also to know where you are headed as per the bottom. And then use the
rules of the road... do every thing in your control to prevent accidents. Then
if you have to say whew...!!!! that was a close one, chock it up to experience
and the things you would do different the next time.

Do not get angry at others who do not know... help them instead. Others might
save you someday...

In the ICE up here in Canada.

Regards,
Roger, an Auxiliary
March 20th we will be on the GO... the Seaway opens..


----- Original Message -----
From: "Coleen Barger" <coleen@calypsopoet.net>
To: "GL List Trawler World" <great-loop@lists.samurai.com>
Sent: Thursday, March 01, 2007 11:51 PM
Subject: GL: you may really hear a whistle


>A post on the topic asked, "What is everyone talking about 'whistles'? ...
> You're talking to him on a VHF, for cryinoutloud, not sounding your horn!"
>
> Got a true story for you. About 4 1/2 years ago, Gary and I were southbound
> on the Mississippi River and about to go around a sizeable bend at a place
> where the river was pretty wide (and for you folks who don't know rivers,
> wide often equals shallow). Ahead of us and downstream was a Coast Guard
> cutter who was repositioning or replacing a can. We were trying to stay
> out of his way and so we turned to our right to cut across the bend and
> get on downstream of him. Immediately, just as we made our turn, the
skipper
> of the cutter gave us a horn signal, two whistles, in fact. We knew what
> to do on hearing that and immediately returned the signal and altered our
> course to keep him on our starboard side. If we hadn't understood the
whistle
> and taken immediate action, we would have gone aground on a sandbar. The
> cutter was warning us away from the sandbar in the fastest way he could
> do so.
>
> Moral of the story: You may not always be able to use the radio or use it
> fast enough. Whistle signals are not obsolete. Learn 'em.
> Coleen Barger
> "Calypso Poet" Carver 466
> website -- http://www.calypsopoet.net
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