Welcome Home
Your Subtitle text
Boatswain's Call / Instructions
The Boatswain's call (or pipe, NEVER "Whistle") dates back to and before the days of wooden-walled ships firing broadsides of round shot, when the Boatswain's Mate was a rough, roaring shellback. It had very definite practical uses in the days of sail. Men high on the royal and top gallant yards could hear its piercing call rising above the decks. In the wind ship days, merchant as well as naval vessels carried piping Boatswain's Mates; but the pipe has long since ceased to be a feature of anything but a man-of-war.
As far as English ships are concerned, the call can be traced back to the days of the Crusades, 1248 A.D. As far back as 1485 A.D, the pipe was used by the English as a honored badge of rank, and was always worn by the Lord High Admiral of England. It was probably worn because it had always been used as a method of passing orders. When the Lord High Admiral of England, Sir Edward Howard, was killed in action off Brest in1513, a "Whistle of Honour" was presented by the Queen Mother of France to the officer who commanded the French Galleys on this occaision. From about that point on it was no longer worn as a badge of rank in England, and it reverted to it's orriginal use and was imployed only as a means of passing orders.
As far as English ships are concerned, the call can be traced back to the days of the Crusades, 1248 A.D. As far back as 1485 A.D, the pipe was used by the English as a honored badge of rank, and was always worn by the Lord High Admiral of England. It was probably worn because it had always been used as a method of passing orders. When the Lord High Admiral of England, Sir Edward Howard, was killed in action off Brest in1513, a "Whistle of Honour" was presented by the Queen Mother of France to the officer who commanded the French Galleys on this occaision. From about that point on it was no longer worn as a badge of rank in England, and it reverted to it's orriginal use and was imployed only as a means of passing orders.
The parts to your Pipe.
How to tune your pipe.
1. Some calls are not shrill enough in sound. Most calls are too open at the pee, and have to be flattened or soldered at the pee, so as to fill the space between it and the bowl.
2. some calls are improved by scraping the side farthest from the pee, it is sometimes necessary to scrape or sharpen the edge, enlarging the hole until the reed strikes the bowl fair. To test this, push a broom straw through the reed to see how the straw hits the wind edge of the hole. That edge should split the straw.
3. The call, once tuned, should sound if held with it's mouth to a gentle breeze.
How to tune your pipe.
1. Some calls are not shrill enough in sound. Most calls are too open at the pee, and have to be flattened or soldered at the pee, so as to fill the space between it and the bowl.
2. some calls are improved by scraping the side farthest from the pee, it is sometimes necessary to scrape or sharpen the edge, enlarging the hole until the reed strikes the bowl fair. To test this, push a broom straw through the reed to see how the straw hits the wind edge of the hole. That edge should split the straw.
3. The call, once tuned, should sound if held with it's mouth to a gentle breeze.
-T. Leigh Ullrich, Master-at-Arms/Interpretive Coordinator,
USS Constellation Museum from 2001-2006
Credits
Boatswain's Mate 3 and 2, Navy Training Courses, Navpers 10121, Edition 1948
The Bluejacket's Maual 1943 U.S. Coast Guardsman's Manual, Third Edition
