The Aldis Lamp

[Gerard Kennedy]

Hi J. P.,

Your description of the working of the Aldis Lamp brought back memories as I had to use that thing a few times in my career!

I remember sailing with a second mate once who had an obsession that he had to know the identity of every ship far and near that he could see. If he couldn't make out the name on the bows or astern, he would then resort to the Light! At least he didn't annoy the R/O and ask him to call an unknown ship!

Anyway, most ships replied but on one occasion a big ship on the horizon ignored him. Our man persisted and eventually the ship did respond but not in the way that was expected. Every light on board fore and aft was switched on. It was the ss Rotterdam, flagship of the Holland/Amerika Line!

Happy days!


Gerry Kennedy

[j.sabourn]

#1. Gerard the reason why so many 2 and 3 mates were so eager to use the Aldis lamp was to keep their hand in for going up for certificates. The speed was 6 words a minute and its amazing how many times some had to sit and resit to get a pass. The Aldis lamp was also known as the Daylight Signalling lamp, but most preferred to use it at night also as against the all round signalling lamp which was not directional like the Aldis. The. Speed for semaphore was 8 words a minute , but think that was dispensed with years ago. In fact don’t even know if the lamp is still in the curriculum. Anyone know ? JS

In my time going up for certificates signals was on its own examination wise. The exams consisted of written ,orals, and signals . The written and orals were held at longer intervals between ,but signals were held once a week and cost 10/- to sit when the dole was 30/- . You had to obtain the 3 parts of the certificate inside of six months , otherwise you lost whatever if any part you had passed, and had to restart from scratch. So in theory you could have 24 shots at signals before losing your written or orals or both of them. As the dole stopped after 12 weeks , unless you were one of the Rothschilds you might be getting short of money. So all the practice at sea , there was a reason for in most cases. Cheers JS
PS A word was 5 letters JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Passenger ships rarely responded, just lit up up their funnels, if they could be bothered, reason, 1/m, 2/m, 3/m and 4/m probably all had MFG and forgot that at one time they had been learner drivers

[j.sabourn]

Either that Ivan or had just forgotten period. Sailed with a few of them. JS

[Colin Wood]

Often used lamp at sea as something to do at 0245 in middle of Atlantic or Indian Oceans. Have occasionally called up Venus as it has risen. Lucky no one about except quartermaster who never said anything.
Have mentioned elsewhere about being called up by Indon navy when on beach in West Timor, cold hear gunfire from Dili region. Battery going flat and asked Chief Eng which pointcharg charging battery. He immediately plugged Aldis into mails and blew the bulb right out of lamp. It was late in evening and having a great party with ranchers so got ablanket and used search light for signalling. Indons kept sailing and left us alone to carry on party.

[Ivan Cloherty]

First rule of the Aldis Lamp : never send faster than you can read : especially when contacting or responding to navy ships, they have dedicated Yeomen, my skills did improve in Suez '56, although even with Sparky reading had to transmit dit da dit many times as Sparky useless on the light as he was attuned to hearing and seemed to lose concentration with the light. 2nd Aldis rule never let Sparky send and you read. Contacting MN ships was easier as we sent and read ourselves, so if some smartass sent fast you replied at the same speed and neither of you were able to read anything!!

[Denis O'Shea]

I always helped with the Aldis and became ok sending and receiving was a bit slow reading to begin with, too slow with the mate writing each letter out on the bridge wing, but once having mastered it enjoyed using the lamp.

[j.sabourn]

#7. Must have been hard Denis for anyone missing an index finger , as many seafarers lacked an occasional finger here and there. Would have been harder for you on the keypad however. I always wondered about the sparks that carried their own side keys and how much faster they got by using the same ? JS

[Denis O'Shea]

John could not get used to using a bug key, perhaps being army trained where the instructor known as high tension Harry would not allow you tap on the key, you had to hold with your two fingers and use a wrist action as in K WAS DOWN DI DOWN and so on the down being your wrist action, this is how I sent all my sea career. Den

[j.sabourn]

Before they advanced to the stage of pushing a button to set off other stations auto alarms , did you have to activate others alarms by setting off manually yourself , by sending the 12 dashes in one minute , a dash being 4 seconds and the interval between 1 second. ? If so how accurate to timing did one have to be ? I would imagine due to the fast speeds R/Os were used to this would be harder than it sounds.? JS.