Edward Sandle on Communciation

We didn’t think much of their radio procedure because they used different things all together and again they were getting more automated then so that when they communicated with us, it was a different system to them and one of our colleagues said that if Nelson had gone into Trafalgar with a VHF radio, the Royal Navy would be experts in communication (laughs) but they weren’t and they made a mountain out of a molehill.

For instance, on one occasion, we had a foreign ship had come and asked … he needed a tow and we’d sent a distress out and this Royal Navy ship communicated with us and we put him in touch, and he was a Minehunter, so this Minehunter was put in touch with this ship and it was a foreigner, and I’ll always remember this.

This Royal Navy Officer saying, “Hello, this is Charlie Oscar here” which meant Commanding Officer, “Charlie Oscar, would you happen to have a sort of rope?” so I broke in and said to this foreign ship, “Have you a towrope?” “Yes, I have a towrope.”

That’s all he was trying to ask but his procedure was so awful.

I believe now there is a list of English … radio English so it’s all straight forward and simple, whereas, “Would you happen by any chance to have …?”

It was ridiculous. If he’d just said, “Have you got a towrope?” the foreigner would have understood immediately, but he couldn’t.

All this Charlie Oscar nonsense is silly.