The media

[happy daze john in oz]

No doubt a times we lose patience with the media after some of the garbage they dish up but this morning on talk back radios was laughable.

The news went like this.

"A ship in the bay is in distress according to reports from people living close by, the emergency signal, seven long blasts on the whistle followed by one short one has been heard'.

A few minutes later a correction came across,

'According to locals the ship is not in distress the alarm went off on its own by accident."

Thankfully a port worker rang in and set the record straight, but had he not so many would have taken the bulletin as gospel.

I give up on getting any semblance of the truth from any form of media these days.
It is crap on top of crap served with more crap.

[j.sabourn]

What does the 7 long blasts followed by a short blast signify John ? What International rule does that adhere to, must be a new one or I have never read or received any notice of such. Maybe I was trying to see the bottom of the whiskey bottle and didn't read. Was maybe a local signal on ship for boat stations or a continuous ringing on the alarm bells as ship used to make up its own local signals for fire and boat drills usually the 3rd. mate used to put his genius to work. Some of the ships I have been on after 7 long blasts on the steam whistle would have been on water rationing for the next week. Cheers JWS. Although 7 and one does sound familiar JS

[John Arton]

What does the 7 long blasts followed by a short blast signify John ? What International rule does that adhere to, must be a new one or I have never read or received any notice of such. Maybe I was trying to see the bottom of the whiskey bottle and didn't read. Was maybe a local signal on ship for boat stations or a continuous ringing on the alarm bells as ship used to make up its own local signals for fire and boat drills usually the 3rd. mate used to put his genius to work. Some of the ships I have been on after 7 long blasts on the steam whistle would have been on water rationing for the next week. Cheers JWS. Although 7 and one does sound familiar JS

J.S.
7 long followed by one short is the accepted signal for crew to muster and abandon ship drill to be held, so that signal heard could have been a ship in harbour carrying out abandon ship drill
rgds
JA

[Captain Kong]

and Abandon ship is done by word of mouth Direct command from the Master.
Brian

[happy daze john in oz]

A further notice came through later in the day regarding this.
According to Port of Melbourne regulations all ships sitting in the roads waiting a berth and waiting more than 24 hours must undergo an emergency drill. This is what occurred this morning and I am assured it was the regulation 7 short and one long blast on the ships whistle.

[Gulliver]

Think some of you mean Seven(or more) short blasts followed by One long blast.
Never mind though if you thought it was the other way round because it still makes a hell of a racket telling you that summat's up....an embarrassing flashback for me to 47 years ago as a first trip cadet .After escorting pilot to bridge at Schelde estuary and then exchanging G flag for the H in a bit of a blow I unknowingly caught the halyard on the whistle cable and after about five sharp tugs on it and consequent blasts of the whistle was quickly dragged away from it by the 3rd Mate.
Apparently various vessels in the vicinity were scattering away from us in all directions....
The very supercilious Captain who was one of the ex troopship Masters gave me such a withering pitying look that by all rights I wonder even today that I'm still alive!

[Ivan Cloherty]

Always thought it was five or more short followed by one long

[happy daze john in oz]

Always thought it was five or more short followed by one long

You are confusing emergency drill with the drinks in the pub.

[j.sabourn]

#7 Bet he had you up polishing the whistle for the next month if was a steam whistle. Used to hate that job, as had to get the engineers to turn the steam off, that's if it was ever on, if had been on was that bloddy hot that the brasso or whatever you were using, used to dry almost immediately, bells were another thing Forecastle and Bridge bell had to clean daily, the ports in the old ships were all brass, and had to clean your own for every sunday inspection. Nowadays hard to find proper brass on a ship. Too much wasted time and lack of manpower. Suppose all the ports on passenger vessels are today imitation brass that doesn't need polishing. JWS

[Ivan Cloherty]

#7 Bet he had you up polishing the whistle for the next month if was a steam whistle. JWS

Didn't look that big from the deck did they, it was only when you got up close and personal you realised how bleddy big they were