Saturday, March 6, 2004

Gulf of Papua, New Guinea

Communication With the Outside World
There have been various forms of communication between ship and land since the early days of sailing. During the 18th and 19th centuries, U.S. and British Navies as well as the whaling trade would communicate with friends and family at home and vice versa, by having out bound ships carry bags of mail and newspapers to deliver to ships that were met at sea and inbound ships would pick up mail from those who were out bound or "on station". Signal flags hoisted from the bridge and signaling by semaphore, using two hand flags attached to staffs, were used for ship to ship and ship to shore communication from the 18th century (or earlier). Flashing light signaling used Morse code to communicate at night from early times through WWII. Radio was used from the early 1900's first as a wireless telegraph and later with voice.

I spoke with 3rd mate, Anthony Quiniola on the bridge about some of the forms of communication used today. Hoist or signal flags are still used to communicate near shore things such as when the pilot is onboard; the hotel flag is hoisted, if they are in quarantine then the Quebec flag will be flown. There are also day shapes that are raised; for example, we've seen these up when there is equipment in the water. There are some officers onboard who still know Morse code, but there are many more ways we are able to communicate while at sea. The VHF radios, which are line of sight, ship-to-ship, or bridge-to-bridge radios used to talk with ships within 24 miles. There is also the MF (mean frequency) or HF (High frequency) Digital Select Calling (DSC) radios used for emergency as well as regular communication. Sat C and Sat B systems allow for faster communication. The Sat B system can transfer voice and some limited data and is real time. The Sat C system is not real time, but is a store forward communication system, you can do telex, some e-mail, but no real data capabilities. The Automated Information System (AIS) is newer and not yet required on all ships, but it takes our GPS information and transfers location along with name of ship, destination, our purpose anything that you input to help communicate with other ships within 24 miles who have the AIS system.

I spoke with Steve Foley, the computer technician onboard about other ways the crew and science party can communicate with shore. We are able to send and receive e-mail through a satellite system called INTELSAT where Scripps actually rents a small portion of a satellite located over the equator. A monthly fee is paid to use this bandwidth to communicate with shore using, e-mail, telephone and fax. We are able to surf the web and this morning communicated with the Ocean Institute at Dana Point through a real time broadcast. Using video cameras and the telephone, Steve and Wayne Suiter from Scripps were able to establish a connection from the Melville to the Ocean Institute. We were able to talk with a gathered group, live, about our experiences, and they saw video of us here on the ship and they even were taken on a tour outside on deck using a wireless camera. It's amazing how much technology has changed life at sea! Check out Steve's interview found on the People page under Interviews for an in-depth look at communication onboard the ship and work as a ship's computer technician.

Well, we are nearing the end of our adventure, two more days at sea. So how will we find our way back to Cairns, Australia...check back tomorrow to find out!

Today's weather and location at 1300 (thirteen hundred hours, military time for 1:00 pm)
Air Temperature: 27°C (81°F)
Water Temperature: 29°C (84°F)
Salinity: 32 PSU
Barometric Pressure: 1007.6 mb
Relative Humidity: 85%
Precipitation: 19.6 mm

Longitude: 8° 48.8784' S
Latitude: 144° 15.6016' E