Boatswain's call

A boatswain's whistle (also boatswain whistle ) is a metal whistle, which is used on board of ships.

In the era of tall ships the boatswain's whistle was the boatman to relay commands to the crew. Even in ancient times to have been commanded by whistling Roman rowers, in its present form, the boat 's whistle was first used in the 13th century on English sailing ships. Although they are " high" and " low" only knows the pitch, included certain signal sequences a variety of different commands. The loud and shrill sound drowned out this weather, sea and the intrinsic noise of the ship and interrupted any entertainment on board.

The structure of the pipe is simple and has no moving parts, however, their use requires some practice. A mouthpiece, the air flow is blown into a narrow tube, from the end of it coincides with a high speed of an open sphere. The edge of the ball opening serves as labium, similar to an organ pipe. Due to the different blowing and change your hand position can be varied whistling sound. Basically, " deep ", the tone duration and their sequence is between the beeps, "high" and distinguished, and trills are common.

The instruments are made ​​of metal, usually copper and brass. But there are also silver plated and solid silver versions available and a golden whistle became 1670 to the insignia of the chief British Admiralty. The pipes of the German Navy are made of nickel plated brass. Depending on the service level of the user, they are also known there as Maaten or Bootsmannsmaatenpfeife.

In today's navigation commands are passed on to the team over loudspeakers, megaphones or on-board radio and the boatswain's whistle plays only the on-board ceremony on military ships a larger role. So is every officer and dignitaries who goes on board or a signal of respect: there will " page refereed ". The whistle is furthermore also in the flag parade in use. In contrast, the "front " whistled by the officer of the watch to the battery pipe. A traditional use, they also can still find on sail training ships such as the Gorch Fock, there will continue to be given commands or announced by catcalls.