The Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP) is a set of key phrases in the English language (which is the internationally recognised language of the sea), supported by the international community for use at sea and developed by the
International Maritime Organization
The International Maritime Organization (IMO; ; ) is a List of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. The IMO was established following agreement at a ...
(IMO). They aim to explain: 1) external communication phrases – ship to ship and ship to shore communication, 2) onboard communication phrases – communication within the ship.
Background
The SMCP were adopted by the 22nd Assembly of the IMO in November 2001 in a resolution which also promoted the wide circulation of the SMCP to all prospective users and all maritime education authorities.
The SMCP includes phrases which have been developed to cover the most important safety-related fields of verbal shore-to-ship (and vice versa), ship-to-ship and on-board communications. The aim is to reduce the problem of language barriers at sea and avoid misunderstandings which can cause accidents.
Examples
* To describe an unmanned and abandoned ship floating adrift, the SMCP gives the correct phrase as, “ (date, time and position if known)”
* Being stuck in ice and requesting assistance: “”.
* Damage to vessel by ice: “”.
* Ship is sinking: “{{lang, en-simple, I am sinking. Please proceed to my assistance. What is your ETA at our distress position?”
See also
*
List of international common standards
*
MarTEL (Maritime Tests of English Language) is a standardised test of maritime English language proficiency
*
Seaspeak
Seaspeak is a controlled natural language (CNL) based on English, designed to facilitate communication between ships whose captains' native tongues differ. It has now been formalised as Standard Marine Communication Phrases (SMCP).
While genera ...
*
Q code
The Q-code is a standardised collection of three-letter codes that each start with the letter "Q". It is an Operating signals, operating signal initially developed for commercial radiotelegraphy, radiotelegraph communication and later adopted b ...
s
References
External links
Rijeka College of Maritime Studies SMCP Handbook
International Maritime Organization
Maritime communication
Maritime safety
English as a global language
English for specific purposes
Constructed languages introduced in the 2000s
2001 in transport