Tensas gazette. [volume] (St. Joseph, La.) 1886-current, 1917-04-27
BY Commander Orion p
Jackson and Capt.
frankE.Evans inyea Power:
Methods of communication among
Uncle SAM S sea fighters explained
radio, signal flags. .bLnkmgGghts,
rockets. 1vig-wags, searohEght
rays. sen,aphore. are noQv in use

only have their ways OF send
Sk4D ing messages of distress ana
other important news, put
they love to gossip on matters of much
less consequence. OF all ships the
man-Of-war is the greatest talker, for
the fleet bustles with life in port or at
sea, and the navies of the world talk
fluently in many languages of which
the peaceful merchantman has barely
mastered the A B &.
The ships of the American navy car
ry on their talk by day or night; an
chOred within the toss of n ships bis
cult of each other or hundreds of miles
apart; on day sparkling with sun
shine or when the fog lies like great
gray blanket on the sea, and all with
the same ease. Within sight of each
other they use their visual signals. ana
when the fog rolls In and hides them
from each other their booming whistles
carry on the talk with long and short
blasts. Even the submarines darting
beneath the surface have their bell
warnings so that these undersea craft
may avoid collision.
The visual signals are in constant
use and are most varied of all the odd
tongues that carry on deep-sea talk.
Flags and semaphOres keep up lively
conversation by day, and when night
sets In the man-of-war has its Ardois
lights and blinkers, its searchlights
and rockets.
At the ends of the flying bridges that
span modern man-of-war you cannot
fail to have noticed the upright bar
from the top of which stubby arms
wave at all angles, for all the world
like the arms Of lively jumping jack.
These are the semaphOre signals, and
they are made either Of wood or metal
and worked by small levers. With the
same movements sailOrman, with a
small red and yellow flag in either
hand, can send the same message, but
the bulk of the messages are sent by
the machines, for they Feel off mes
sages faster than a man. Before the
semaphore system was perfected this
kind of visual signaling was done by
flag waving or wigwagging. The sem
aphOre Is faster, but when the distance
Is too great for the waving semaphore
arms to be made out, the message is
wigwagged by the big red-and-white
flag.
In the semaphore each angle of the
arms is letter. In the wigwag there
are three motions, to the right, to the
left and to the front. Each motion
to right or left represents a dot or
dash of the telegraphic code, and
some letters require four moves.
For distances where the semaphore
and wigwag are not adequate, and al
ways when the fleet is maneuvering At
sea or In battle, signal flags are hoist
ed. These hoists, as they are called,
can be seen for miles.
For the flag-hoists the 26 flags of
the international code, one for each
letter of the alphabet, are used.
The code book of the navy, If il
should fall into the hands of another
government, might spell disaster If
those two nations should meet in war.
So, in peace time as well as in war,
they are guarded jealousy and their
loss is court-martial Offense. The
signal code book is weighted with lead,
and if ship is captured it is thrown
overheard.
When night falls the red and white
lamps of the Ardois at masthead wink
out their messages, and each ship, as
II reads them, passes them on to the
ships astern. Yardarm blinkers are
supplanting the Ardois just as the
semaphore did the wigwag, for the
blinkers flash out the dots and dashes
in short and long displays faster than
the Ardois.
If message must be sent a great
distance. perhaps to Il scout far out
at sea. the great searchlight draws its
giant finger against the somber back
ground, calling the scout by its code
letter. From the black ocean leaps
up the answering AYE! Aye" of the
scout. of goes the message with ma
jestic sweeps. and the signalmen lay
their telescopes in the quarter from
which the answer is to come. while the
recorder, pad and pencil in hand.
writes il down in his signal book
There are other lights used at night
by all ships for special purposes. such
as code signals and signals Of distress.
These are the Very night signals. A
cartridge much like that used i'm a
shotgun Is fired from specially crn-
structed pistol and the rocket that
scars up In the night Is followed by