to the Navy Signalmans Page

In 2003-2004, the United States Navy phased out the SM, or signalman rate. Now dependent on radio and satellite communications, the art of the signalman is soon to be a thing of the past. Hopefully some will continue to study signaling, for as with most electronics gear, they do tend to go out at times, and especially during high sunspot activity.
Magnetic storms from the sun have caused communication blackouts for minutes or hours at a time in the past, at times even stopping ham radio and other forms of electronic communications. There may be time when manual signaling by either semaphore or flashing light would be the only way ships at sea could pass information back and forth.

semaphore

The Navy signalman played a vital role in the past. There is lots of info on the web about the role they played, so an attempt will not be made here to do that. This page is just to remember these men and to show a small part of what they did. The photos above and below show SM's aboard the USS Currituck, circa 1946.

signal light

Though I would think that audio communications were left up to radiomen, the morse in the background says "Welcome Signalmen". WIth me being a ham radio operator, I found it hard not to include the morse.

Move your mouse over the light above to make your own signals.
Messages were sent using the International Morse Code, a series of short and long flash durations.
The light at the top is sending W E L C O M E

Not everything was spelled out as straight as the welcome message above. There was a "code within the code", abbreviations used to shorten the time sent and receiving the messages. Though several may be used at once, using just 4 to 6 signal flags hoisted above the ship, a lot could be said.

Those flags are here, the alphabet and numbers with corresponding flashing lights.

Another form of signaling was with handheld flags. It was called semaphore.There is an animation at the top of the home page of this site.
The individual signals are shown below.

semaphore

The below was submitted by Currituck Signalman, J. Lipot.
The author is unknown.

The Lay Of The Last Signalman
I
On a thickly wooden sponson where the last projector stands,
The museum pair of handflags hanging idly in my hands,
with my jargon half forgotten of my stock and trade berfet,
I wonder what's ahead of me - the only bunting left.
II
The relics of my ancient craft have vanished one by one.
The Cruisers arch, the Morse flag and maneuvering lights have gone,
And I hear they'd be as useless in the final Global war
As the helio, the foghorn and the masthead semaphore.
III
The masthead is sprouting gadgets like a nightmare Christmas tree.
There are whips and stubs and waveguides where my halyards used to be,
and I couldn't hoist a tackline through that lunatic array,
for at every height and angle there's a dipole in the way.
IV
The alert and hawk-eyed Signalman is rendered obsolete
by the electrically operated optics of the fancy modern Fleet.
And the leaping barracuda or the charging submarine
can be spoted as a blob upon flourescent screen.
V
To delete the human error, to erase a noble breed,
we rely upon a relay and we pin our faith to creed.
So we press a button, make a switch and spin a wheel,
and it's cent percent efficient when we're on an even keel.
VI
But again I may be needed, for the time will surely come,
when we have to talk in silence and the modern stuff is dumb.
When the signal lantern's flashing or the flags are flying free -
it was good enough for Nelson and it's good enough for me.
 F.S.B.
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