Bunting's Talk

[DaveH]

.....and to you and yours Dave ...... still have a grasp on "opposite subject" to interpret that hoist without referring .

Was it ATP1 and ATP1A ... The Bridge Bible ?

[Pelican]

"From Pete Frost
Something for the Buntings. Operator Mechanic (Communications) Anthony Pugh aboard HMS Iron Duke (F234) signals to RFA Black Rover with a 5-inch Aldis lamp while conducting a RAS in the Atlantic during Operation Keeling on 28th March 2003."

[Pelican]

HMS Caroline
Have you seen our new signal flags?
They were installed yesterday to celebrate HMS Caroline being shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019.
The right side reads HMS Caroline, and the left side says Art Fund!

And
HMS Caroline has been shortlisted for the Art Fund Museum of the Year 2019

See - http://lewin-of-greenwich-naval-history ... 7697#p7697

[Little h]

Security
What happens when a Royal Navy warship sees a NATO task force headed straight for it? A crash course in Morse
By Gareth Corfield 2 Jan 2019 at 10:37

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Boatnotes What's it like aboard a warship? Aside from the glamorous bits when Russian jets are whizzing past and there's lots to do? El Reg not only went aboard HMS Enterprise to find out – we scored a trip to the Arctic Circle courtesy of the Royal Navy.

As related in previous instalments, your correspondent was lucky enough to be invited aboard the seabed survey ship at the end of October by the Ministry of Defence.

So far we've seen Enterprise's seabed survey and data-gathering gear and we've had a sneaky look at the ship's collection of mid-2000s operating systems. But what was it actually like, sailing towards the Arctic Circle?

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After excusing myself from the table I wandered up to the bridge. Naval tradition has it that you ask the officer of the watch's permission before entering: aboard the Enterprise, the full phrase "Permission to come on the bridge, please, officer of the watch?" has morphed into "bridge, please, officer of the watch!" Nonetheless, it is still a question to be answered and not a formality.

Up on the bridge, now we're out in the open ocean, things have just become interesting. A NATO carrier task force is sailing at us, comprising the US Navy ships New York (a 25,000-ton amphibious warfare ship), Iwo Jima (40,000 tons of flat-topped helicopter carrier), a US Naval Service supply ship and the Polish Navy destroyer General Pulaski.

Cdr Harper later tells me that according to the nautical "rules of the road" we have right of way – but it certainly doesn't feel that way when looking out of the bridge windows.

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I moved outside to the port bridge wing (door on the left that leads to an outside platform running behind the bridge) and found two signals ratings operating a signal lamp. One was pressing the key, opening and closing the shutters in front of the lamp to send a Morse code message to the New York, while the other had his binoculars to hand.

Tap tap – clunk, tap. Tap tap – clunk, tap. Morse code letter R.

Two Royal Navy ratings with a lamp on HMS Enterprise

bridge_wing_signalling.jpg

The signallers doing their thing with a signal lamp

A light, a little concentrated white dot of it, surprisingly bright in the afternoon Arctic sun, shone back at us from the New York's bridge.

"Dash, dash, dot… G," says the rating with the binos. "Means repeat."


Tap tap – clunk, tap, goes his mate on the lamp. G, comes the answering sequence of flashes.

"Look at this, I've got the script here" – the lamp rating shows me a piece of laminated card covered in code letters arranged in challenge and response sequences – "we send this, they reply with their callsign, we send ours, and that's how it's meant to go."

I looked up in time to see the New York's signaller tapping out G again. "Good luck with it," I said, wandering to the rear of the bridge to rubberneck at the rest of the task force.

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Surely, in this day and age, I asked Cdr Harper, there's no need for such antiquated communication methods? The CO enthusiastically replied, referring to the Morse code signalling routine: "It's secure because it's line-of-sight only; we can encrypt it; it's very difficult to eavesdrop on it unless you're inside line-of-sight; it's a valuable naval skill."

He had a point. I got the distinct impression that the Royal Navy values Morse code highly as a matter of professional pride.

_____________________________________________________________________________

Source; The Register where the full article can be read and several other images can be viewed.

My comment; for duffle coat - read fleece

[Pelican]

CHIEF YEOMAN ALFRED ALBERT WILLIAMS & The Bembridge Lifeboat

[Pelican]

FROM: SHOTLEY MAG. 1936

[Little h]

HMS Trent
@HMSTrent
Looking good @HMSQNLZ

EPC39qjWsAEZY77 HMS Trent twitter.jpg

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See below for an Interesting reply to the above tweet from ex Royal Navy Radio Operator :-

Simon Jackson @roadstar780 · 24 Jan @roadstar780 24 Jan
Replying to @HMSTrent, @HMNBPortsmouth and 2 others

Doesn’t the PO in the second picture know his morse code and has to have a piece of paper with it written down

[DaveH]

That Harry is a pretty poor reflection on the Comms of today , take away their Satellites , Keyboards and Apps and it all turns to Rat???? . With us it was once learnt it becaome our bread and butter . Can still read and send be it Radio or Light and the Semaphore ain't that bad either.

Must have taken him a month of Sundays to send a msg , that is if the clown at the receiving end could read it .

__ .. ... ... .. ... ... .. .__. .__. ..

_... . ... _ _... . _. _ _. ._ .. ._.. ...

or one that begins Three Dits Four Dits Two Dits Dah etc

[Pelican]

Such a rare event it was captured for posterity - Are the RFA making a point?

HMS Dragon rolling at anchor off Plymouth this morning.

Wot no ensign or is it round the port side?

[Little h]

On a halyard on stbd side

DRAGON.jpg

Late edit; my best guess would be that the Ensign is flying from (bent on) the inboard halyard, on the inboard of the two shackles attached to that stbd box bar extending from be outboard panel of the sat dome mounting platform/base, (indicated by red/white arrow):-

DSC00779 - Copy (2).jpg