404 DUAXE— SIGHT AND SIGNALLING IN THE NAVY. 



of the semaphore, and some 50 different flags, not to speak of the 

 various national flags. In addition, he must know the various day 

 and night position and speed signals, danger signals, truck light, side 

 lights, and weather signals, the different kinds of buoys and beacon 

 lights, and must be able and ready to pick up boats, ships, and 

 rocks. He is the " eyes of the ship " and on his vigilance and sight, 

 speed and accuracy, the ship's safety may largely depend. 



The signalman's duties then are both highly important and also 

 are varied and complex. They demand a considerable degree of 

 intelligence and skill. In this as in all other skilled work, experi- 

 ence and practice count enormously. To an outsider it is amazing 

 to see the facility with which an experienced man can fulfill all 

 these duties and carry them on for a long time without apparent 

 mental and physical fatigue. One signalman, who did not claim to 

 be specially proficient, told me that he once read visual signals with- 

 out intermission for two hours and a half, and when his work was 

 done felt no more tired than if he had been reading a book for the 

 same length of time. Yet during this long period eyes and mind 

 must have been intent with scarcely a moment's respite on ever- 

 varying combinations of symbols. And the quickness with which 

 signals are appreciated and the necessary responses given is equally 

 astonishing. For example, when in squadron evolutions a flagship 

 is setting flag signals, the flags, bent on to the halliards, do not, 

 of course, break out so as to be visible until they are started on their 

 way up. Yet it is no uncommon thing for every ship in the 

 squadron to send its answering pennant up before the flagship's 

 display has reached the top, thus showing that in two or three 

 seconds at the most the four or five flags comprising the signal have 

 been read, understood, and answered by every signalman — and that 

 even when some of the ships are several miles away. 



Such expertness, of course, comes only with practice. The be- 

 ginner not only discerns signals less readily, less far, and particu- 

 larly with less certainty than the expert, but he tires soon, so that 

 his work quickly becomes unreliable." Now even in time of peace, 



■'• Recognizing this, a quartermaster will not keep an inexperienced signal- 

 man looking too long, especially through a field-glass, at a semaphore or 

 winker light, but will relieve him after a few sentences have been taken. So 



