boat whistles

Sharon,

There are many signals one may hear out on the river. Most boats don't use the whistle anymore, preferring to use VHF Radio contact instead. When I first came to the river the whistle was still the preferred method and the radio was coming into it's own. Now the radio is the first method of contact and the whistle is the back up...gee, how we have left the romantic river behind for this new utilitarian world!

Last night I was at our beautiful waterfront park and saw not a hint of anything other than one tow...downbound. I remember a time where you'd see at least one excursion boat in a 5 hour period. Not to mention at least a couple towboats, fleeting action, and a handful or more of pleasure boats.

Here are some of the basic whistle signals....

1 long = Port to Port meeting
2 long = Stb'd to Stb'd meeting
1 long followed by 3 shorts = Operating under astern propulsion (backing up)
1 long followed by two shorts = Salute (sometimes in New Orleans you hear 1 long and 1 short...meaning the same thing)
5 short blasts of the whistle = Emergency or dangerous operating conditions.

Those are the basics....can't let all the secrets out of the bag, can I?

Travis

Thank you Travis!!!!! Now I'll know some of what I listen to while sitting on my patio!!!

Like Shaking Hands From Afar

If you're hearing, where you live, and I'm assuming your're not in NOLA, a long and two shorts, that means, "HELLO", as Travis said was a Salute. A greeting that is sometimes blown as a long and a short, or some others may blow the latter and it is returned by the former, depending how sincere the second blower is toward the other. A long and two shorts in exchange for a long and a short often denotes respect and/or a very sincere return of the first's greeting. Something like a firm handshake. Incidently, when blowing whistle signals, there is no long blast- rather the USCG says those are to be called prolonged blasts.

Travis has most of the rest covered. Who, by the way, do you hear blowing whistle signals these days?

Guess it must be the barges.....can't see them....only hear them.

Sharon in your original post you mention one long and two shorts. More than likely its a towing vessel sounding a " restricted visibility" signal, like fog or shut out rain. Where I live some foggy nights I get little sleep, nor do my neighbors. The boats had almost stopped the use of fog signals but now it seems to be on a come back.

All I know is that when I stood on the bow of the DQ and that whistle began that low throated tone that evolved into a full blown roar is that my Soul and Spirit soared!!!

DQ whistle

Hey, Sam, great to hear from you! That DQ whistle gave me goose pimples every time - and even now as I think about it. Hope all is well at your landing.

It seemed like every time the DQ docked in St. Francisville by the ferry, it was foggy and sleep was rather impossible, like at your place now. Question: would there have been a horn on the landing which signalled automatically all night, or would a pilot on the ferry be manually sounding the whistle all that time?

Rather doubt it was on the landing. The ferry boat had the obligation to sound a "restricted visibility" signal. It's more than likely the pilot was not manually sounding the whistle, rather an automated signal unit. Here on the Ohio we have some automated signal units that sound like a dying duck. Simply horrible sounds, but legal.

If it was foggy, it could have been on the landing as well.

St. Francisville fog horn

... or maybe the praline lady was hired out to sound it... a lousy landing, at the 'gravel pits', but her pralines eased the pain of the fog horn. Wasn't there a lady at Under the Hill in Natchez, too?

Bill, I think the reason that fog signals have come back is.....if you remember about 10 yrs ago an ORC boat ran over a fishing boat around Hanover, Payne Hollow, Marble Hill area. It was in fog and the pilot on the ORC boat, who had 30 yrs. experience, was running dead slow and had an observer in the pilothouse with him because of the fog. They suddenly heard a cry for help and the pilot immediately started backing down. It turned out that he had run over a fishing boat loaded with "good ol'boys", I think 6 drowned. Never mind that the good ol'boys boat was overloaded, never mind that they all had cocain in their systems, never mind they had been drinking all night, never mind that they were in the middle of the channel at 4 in the morning in shut out fog, never mind that the engine didn't work, and never mind that the running lights didn't work, the Coast Guard wanted to know if the ORC pilot was blowing fog signals (he wasn't). The pilot had his license suspended. Now most towing companies require fog signals.

I almost nailed a johnboat in that same area one foggy morning. We were piddling along and out of the ooze there was the siilouette of a guy frantically trying to start his motor, dead ahead. Fortunately he got it started. But what on earth was he doing there? Whatever he might have had in him, I think we scared it out of him.

Miss Sophronia Dyson

The Praline Lady at Natchez-Under-the-Hill was, and may still be, Miss Sophronia Dyson, who made the most delicious Suothern sweet praline treats, she called "Yum-Yum". As in, "Get on over here and buy those babies some yum-yum."

Mrs. Dyson, besides selling the best pecan pralines in Dixie at the foot of Silver Street, was also a nurse and a school crossing guard. She had put her children through college making her yummy candy on her kitchen stove, tending the sick, and standing in all sorts of weather to get other people's kids safely to and from school.

Sophronia was a favorite of our's when we lived in Natchez, and sometimes we would deliberately shy from her when she was selling her goodies, for she persisted in refusing our money and insisted that she give our boys free samples, and we knew of the good works she was doing with the sale of her famous sugar-pecan treats. But we compromised and took a few free candies and paid for many more.