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When I worked on a large historical sailing ship that required a dozen crew to perform tasks like raising sails, tacking, or reefing, we followed a call-and-res
by Dangeranger 8y ago
When I worked on a large historical sailing ship that required a dozen crew to perform tasks like raising sails, tacking, or reefing, we followed a call-and-response verbal command system for many of the same reasons.
When the helmsman would yell out "Ready about!", we would check the surroundings and respond "Ready!", then we would listen for "Helms Alee!" and prepare to switch sides and trim the sails. This process made sure that all of the crew were synchronized as to the current step in the process.[0]
[0] http://lrsailingcenter.com/posts/tacking/ http://lrsailingcenter.com/posts/tacking/
- greetings 8y agoCall backs! A really good practice. As having also worked on a historical ship the bit that always gets me is when working on helm when needing to communicate our heading we say "one five three" rather than "one hundred fifty three" and then that is repeated back. Makes it much more difficult to make mistakes this way.
- nhf 8y agoSame in aviation, the ICAO phonetic alphabet is meant to reduce uncertainty over historically poor radio communications. Plus readback to air traffic control and so on is relatively standardized to allow for a few chances to realize you got the wrong thing down.
- sandworm101 8y agoIt seems silly until you have to do it in a storm, with wing literally howling into your ears. Combinations of sounds, gestures and readbacks are used anywhere loud noises are to be expected. Pretty much everything in aviation and the military requires some such layering.
- endgame 8y agoOn the ships I've worked on, call-and-response gets used for important messages even between two people: "Steer zero nine zero" "Zero nine zero aye"
- femto 8y ago"Steer zero nine zero", "Zero nine zero aye" is the right way of doing a callback compared to "Ready about!", "Ready!" Repeating the information back, instead of just saying "yes" ensures that the correct message has been received. My experience with this was relaying a message between the driver and guard, to reverse a train on a main railway line. The guard answered "yes" and there was hell to pay as the train reversed across a section boundary. The "yes" response ensured the guard received a message, but not that he received the correct message.
- Dangeranger 8y agoYou are correct. For many commands such as raising sails we would repeat the command across the deck. My recollection was that distinct responses were reserved for potentially dangerous maneuvers where the helm needed to make sure the crew was performing the correct step at the correct time.
- crooked-v 8y agoThe same call-and-response style is the standard for modern sailboats even if they can be single-handed in operation, because if somebody's out of place during a tack the boom can sweep them right off the boat when it goes from one side to the other.
- Dangeranger 8y agoAs most modern sailboats are much smaller than a "Tall Ship" it is also a lot of fun to switch from port to starboard while the ship is coming about ... hopefully before the boom starts to swing.
- ColinWright 8y agoIn racing dinghies when tacking you often don't actually change sides until the boom has come across. Then when you do cross you are returning the boat to upright from nearly capsized. That drags the sail through the air creating a local increase in effective wind-speed, helping to re-accelerate after the speed lost during the tack.
- toomanybeersies 8y agoWhen I used to do manual labour, I used to do this when told to do tasks. e.g. if someone said "Go and sweep the leaves and put them in the bin", I'd clarify and say "So I'm sweeping those leaves and putting them in the bin?". It worked well in making sure everyone was on the same page about what I was actually supposed to be doing. I eventually stopped doing it though because people got annoyed and thought I was stupid or just not listening to them, which was ironic because that's exactly the opposite of what was happening. It's a shame really, because it did minimise errors. There's nothing more annoying for everyone then when someone spends hours doing the wrong task because of poor communication.
- zrobotics 8y agoWhereas at the automotive shop I used to work at, everyone else picked that habit up from me. I'd picked it up from experience in aviation line service during high school. My coworkers acted annoyed for the first week, but they quickly realized I didn't expect a response and it made communication in a noisy shop clearer. Especially after the day that a coworker got confused about which truck was which, and drilled a 3.5" hole in the bed of a brand new truck (thinking it was getting a gooseneck hitch). After that, everyone else started repeating verbal instructions as well.
- rhacker 8y agoOUCH, what happened, did your shop end up going through insurance to get the bed replaced? I am only curious because this almost happened to me... and I was so glad when I found out they didn't put in the holes yet.
- zrobotics 8y agoWe ended up giving the customer a free gooseneck hitch. Thankfully he had intended to install one eventually, but it wasn't a pleasant day.
- MisterOctober 8y agoI do this also at my office -- it massively helps avoid misunderstandings, errors due to miscommunication, and other screw-ups. Like Hamlet said -- 'we must speak by the card, or else equivocation will undo us!'
- dillondoyle 8y agoAlso common in many high volume kitchens!
- astrodust 8y agoOne local burger joint made it a habit to not only call out your order to the crew in the kitchen, but that the kitchen would sing out the order back, with playful names for each type of thing on the menu. Seemed to keep spirits up and probably had the side-effect of reducing errors.