Gary wrote:
otnmbrd wrote:

Gary,
G Obviously you haven't visited too many US ports.
The terms "one whistle", "two whistle", "green to green", "red to red"
are frequently used, as are "stbd to stbd", "port to port".
You will mainly find the terms being used by Pilots, tugboat/workboat
operators and as they are self explanatory as to meaning, for a given
situation, it is unlikely that you will find them written down anywhere.
As to who started the usage, it's anyone's guess, but my own feeling
is the tugboats and it progressed from there to Pilots (Many US pilots
come from tugboats).

otn


So what you are saying is it's slang, local terminology?

I have visited many American Ports, most recently Seattle a couple weeks
ago where I took a 100 foot sailing ship up the Chittendam Locks talking
all the way with Seattle traffic and other ships and no-one said one or
two whistle anything.

I thing it must be a very local phrase, certainly not in common use out
here or in Canadian Ports.

Gary


The ships whistle you hear most often in Halifax is when they are
casting off to leave their dock.