Search and rescue

[John Arton]

In the admiralty list of signals there was a section devoted to searching for and rescuing seafarers from sunken/abandoned ships. It consisted of appointing an on screen commander, type of searches to carry out, (grid,line abreast etc). It also gave the signals an aircraft assisting in the search , such as flying over a search vessel and waggling it's wings before heading off in the direction of any sightings, opening and closing it's engines throttle, etc.
You may think that all of this has finished with the advent of GPS and satellite communication, but according to this report it seems it must still be applicable.
Rgds
J.A
https://gcaptain.com/four-sailors-re...eid=3b737aa316

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi John
Here in Aus people constantly go out fishing in small boats without any equipment to contact the shore, despite many warnings from the Authorities , usually the ones who are saved are the ones who carry the signal beacons, the others, their bodies sometimes are recovered by the police.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Couple of years ago on a cruise out of oz we spent almost a whole day looking for the remains of a yacht from the Sydney to Tassie Boxing day race.
All that was found was the hull, but apparently worth enough to salvage.