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Why is "L" for "STOP"?

  • 01-11-2016 12:04pm
    #1
    murphaph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,050 ✭✭✭✭


    Hi all, first post here. I'm doing my pleasurecraft (motor and small sail) licence over here in Germany at the moment and we learned that the letter "L" is signalled from coast guard/Police (either by flag or Morse) to get you to stop (or heave to or whatever it's called in English...we're doing this in German obviously). I googled a bit but didn't find anything and our instructor didn't know why either. Anyone have any idea?


Comments

  • #2
    pedroeibar1
    Closed Accounts Posts: 5,108 ✭✭✭pedroeibar1


    It is not an abbreviation for anything – back in the day when the International Code of Signals was set up/agreed by nations, the letter ‘L’ was attributed to the message ‘You should stop your vessel instantly’ – just as M means ‘My vessel is stopped and making no way through the water’. ‘A’ is ‘I have a diver down’, ‘O’ is man overboard, 'U' is running into danger, etc. (I often wondered about the poor sod in the water while somebody was concentrating on finding and running up the O flag!)


  • #3
    murphaph
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 19,050 ✭✭✭✭murphaph


    Thanks for clearing that up!


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