Spirit-class cruise ship
The Spirit class is a class of cruise ships built at the Helsinki New Shipyard in Helsinki, Finland. The ships are operated by Carnival Cruise Lines and Costa Cruises; the six ships were built to the original Panamax form factor, allowing them to pass through the Panama Canal. This class has the smallest of the signature smoke. Carnival's Spirit-class ships feature a unique funnel design that integrates the skylight dome of the atrium. In 2007 and 2009, Queen Victoria and Costa Luminosa were introduced; the design of these ships are a hybrid between the Vista class. Creating the Vista/Spirit hybrid class. MV Arcadia – a similar Panamax ship operated by P&O Cruises. Coral Princess and Island Princess – A similar set of Panamax ships operated by Princess Cruises Radiance-class cruise ships – a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Royal Caribbean International Signature-class cruise ship – a similar class of Panamax ships operated by Holland America Line Carnival Cruise Lines
Dry dock
A dry dock is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction and repair of ships and other watercraft; the use of dry docks in China goes at least as far back the 10th century A. D. In 1088, Song Dynasty scientist and statesman Shen Kuo wrote in his Dream Pool Essays: At the beginning of the dynasty the two Che provinces presented two dragon ships each more than 200 ft. in length. The upper works included several decks with palatial cabins and saloons, containing thrones and couches all ready for imperial tours of inspection. After many years, their hulls decayed and needed repairs, but the work was impossible as long as they were afloat. So in the Hsi-Ning reign period a palace official Huang Huai-Hsin suggested a plan. A large basin was excavated at the north end of the Chin-ming Lake capable of containing the dragon ships, in it heavy crosswise beams were laid down upon a foundation of pillars.
So that the basin filled with water, after which the ships were towed in above the beams. The water was pumped out by wheels so that the ships rested quite in the air; when the repairs were complete, the water was let in again. The beams and pillars were taken away, the whole basin covered over with a great roof so as to form a hangar in which the ships could be protected from the elements and avoid the damage caused by undue exposure; the first English and oldest surviving dry dock still in use was commissioned by Henry VII of England at HMNB Portsmouth in 1495. This dry dock holds the world's oldest commissioned warship, HMS Victory; the earliest description of a floating dock comes from a small Italian book printed in Venice in 1560, called Descrittione dell'artifitiosa machina. In the booklet, an unknown author asks for the privilege of using a new method for the salvaging of a grounded ship and proceeds to describe and illustrate his approach; the included woodcut shows a ship flanked by two large floating trestles, forming a roof above the vessel.
The ship is pulled in an upright position by a number of ropes attached to the superstructure. The Saint-Nazaire's Chantiers de l'Atlantique owns one of the biggest in the world: 1,200 by 60 metres; the largest graving dock of the Mediterranean as of 2009 is at the Hellenic Shipyards S. A.. The Alfredo da Silva Dry Dock in Almada, was closed in 2000; the largest roofed dry dock is at the German Meyer Werft Shipyard in Papenburg, Germany, it is 504 m long, 125 m wide and stands 75 m tall. Harland and Wolff Heavy Industries in Belfast, Northern Ireland, is the site of a large dry dock 556 by 93 metres; the massive cranes are named after the Biblical figures Goliath. Dry Dock 12 at Newport News Shipbuilding at 662 by 76 metres is the largest dry dock in the USA; the largest floating-dock in North America is named The Vigorous. It is operated by Vigor Industries in Portland, OR, in the Swan Island industrial area along the Willamette River. A graving dock is the traditional form of dry dock, it is narrow basin made of earthen berms and concrete, closed by gates or by a caisson.
When open, a vessel is floated in and the water pumped out, leaving the craft supported on blocks. The keel blocks as well as the bilge block are placed on the floor of the dock in accordance with the "docking plan" of the ship. Routine use of dry docks is for the "graving" i.e. the cleaning, removal of barnacles and rust, re-painting of ships' hulls. Some fine-tuning of the ship's position can be done by divers while there is still some water left to manoeuvre it about, it is important that supporting blocks conform to the structural members so that the ship is not damaged when its weight is supported by the blocks. Some anti-submarine warfare warships have protruding sonar domes, requiring that the hull of the ship be supported several metres from the bottom of the drydock. Once the remainder of the water is pumped out, the ship can be inspected or serviced; when work on the ship is finished, water is allowed to re-enter the dry dock and the ship is refloated. Modern graving docks are box-shaped, to accommodate the newer, boxier ship designs, whereas old dry docks are shaped like the ships that are planned to be docked there.
This shaping was advantageous because such a dock was easier to build, it was easier to side-support the ships, less water had to be pumped away. Dry docks used for building Navy vessels may be built with a roof; this is done to prevent spy satellites from taking pictures of the dry dock and any ships or submarines that may be in it. During World War II, fortified dry docks were used by the Germans to protect their submarines from Allied air raids. Today, covered dry docks are used only when servicing or repairing a fleet ballistic missile submarine. Another advantage of covered dry docks is. A floating dry dock is a type of pontoon for dry docking ships, possessing floodable buoyancy chambers and a "U"-shaped cross-section; the walls are used to give the dry dock stability when the floor or deck is below the surface of the water. When valves are opened, the
STX Finland
STX Finland Oy Aker Yards Oy, was a Finnish shipbuilding company operating three shipyards in Finland, in Turku and Rauma, employing some 2,500 people. It was part of STX Europe, a group of international shipbuilding companies owned by the South Korean STX Corporation. Half of Helsinki yard was sold to Russian USC in 2010. In September 2013, STX Finland announced that the Rauma shipyard would be closed in June 2014. In August 2014, the Turku shipyard was sold to Meyer Werft the state-owned Finnish Industry Investment and renamed Meyer Turku Oy. STX Finland Oy was a descendant of different shipyard companies. Wärtsilä operated the shipyards of Turku since the 1930s. Wärtsilä Marine went bankrupt in 1989 after merging with Valmet shipyards. Masa-Yards was established by Martin Saarikangas with financing from the shipping companies to finish the ships under construction taking over the operations of Wärtsilä's former shipyards. In the mid-90s Kvaerner purchased Masa-Yards and Kvaerner Masa-Yards was born.
In 1991 the shipbuilding businesses of Hollming Oy of Rauma and Rauma-Repola of Rauma were merged to form Finnyards. This company became Aker Finnyards. In January 2005 Kvaerner Masa-Yards and Aker Finnyards merged to form the "new" Aker Finnyards Oy; the name of the company was changed to Aker Yards Oy on 7 June 2006, to STX Finland Cruise Oy on 23 November 2008. Since September 2009 the company has been named STX Finland Oy. STX Finland and its predecessors built many luxurious cruise ships, including the first modern purpose-built cruise ship, the Song of Norway. More recent cruise ships built by the company included the two Oasis-class vessels, Oasis of the Seas and Allure of the Seas which held the record for largest cruise ships in the world until 2015 when Harmony of the Seas was launched at STX Europe Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in France. At end of 2012 STX negotiated with RCCL about an order of a large cruise ship. In order to secure the financial basis of the project, STX sent a request for loan of 50 million euros to the Finnish government and a copy of the request to media.
The Finnish government led by Katainen Cabinet, was put into a difficult situation. Employment at Turku yard was a sensitive topic for the both ruling parties National Coalition and Social Democrats. While the sum was small, financial status of STX was poor and according to an analysis the needed sum would be larger, it looked obvious that STX tried to press the Finnish government to first give a smaller sum which it would use as a leverage for subsequent demands. The government was in a politically difficult situation, as the public, opposition parties and own party members wanted to lend the money in order to secure the valuable order; the other option would have been becoming joint owner but the government did not want to have a financially unstable business partner. Instead, the government took another strategy – trying to find a new owner for Turku shipyard in secret from the Koreans and buying Helsinki-based naval engineering company Aker Arctic; the man behind the plot was Minister of Jan Vapaavuori.
Despite of the high pressure, in December 2012 the government refused providing the loan, with the formal excuse that EU does not allow giving subsidies to unprofitable companies. Turku shipyard lost the order which went to French Saint-Nazaire located Chantiers de l'Atlantique where the government was more generous; the decision of the Finnish government was received with consternation and vast criticism from every direction. STX Turku yard had two cruise ships under construction for the German TUI Cruises; the shipowner as well as other financiers of the projects had observed the financial situation of the shipbuilder and became distrustful on STX after the Finnish government's refusal of financing the new project. This led to opening of the financial basis of the TUI orders; the future of Finnish shipbuilding looked bad. Therefore, the ongoing projects had to be urgently secured. While the Finnish subsidiary was in crisis, the Korean owner remained passive. Negotiations with STX were challenging because it was difficult to find the right persons who have got the mandate to make decisions in the company, the creditors, Korean Development Bank as the biggest one, had its word in the financial decisions of the indebted company.
The Finnish government got crucially important support from main owner of TUI Cruises. RCCL made concessions to secure the financial basis. Speculatively, RCCL wanted to save the yard because it did not want to lose an important part of the global cruise ship building capacity. Moreover, STX sold the Perno shipyard area for €23.5 million and the state gave innovation support to STX. Financing of the TUI vessels was secured with these actions; the Finnish government and STX made a restructuring plan together with consulting company in June 2013. According to the report, there would not be insufficient orders for both Turku and Rauma yards, with the recommendation that the Rauma yard should be closed down. At first STX was reluctant to close the Rauma yard, however the management was convinced about the need to cut down capacity. In September 2013 STX announced the closure of the Rauma yard and the sale of the area to the town of Rauma. While this led to an outcry, it fit with the plans of the government: the shipbuilding facilities were saved for a new start.
A new shipbuilding company Rauma M
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and most populous city of Finland. Located on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, it is the seat of the region of Uusimaa in southern Finland, has a population of 650,058; the city's urban area has a population of 1,268,296, making it by far the most populous urban area in Finland as well as the country's most important center for politics, finance and research. Helsinki is located 80 kilometres north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 km east of Stockholm, 390 km west of Saint Petersburg, Russia, it has close historical ties with these three cities. Together with the cities of Espoo and Kauniainen, surrounding commuter towns, Helsinki forms the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, which has a population of nearly 1.5 million. Considered to be Finland's only metropolis, it is the world's northernmost metro area with over one million people as well as the northernmost capital of an EU member state. After Stockholm and Oslo, Helsinki is the third largest municipality in the Nordic countries.
The city is served by the international Helsinki Airport, located in the neighboring city of Vantaa, with frequent service to many destinations in Europe and Asia. Helsinki was the World Design Capital for 2012, the venue for the 1952 Summer Olympics, the host of the 52nd Eurovision Song Contest. Helsinki has one of the highest urban standards of living in the world. In 2011, the British magazine Monocle ranked Helsinki the world's most liveable city in its liveable cities index. In the Economist Intelligence Unit's 2016 liveability survey, Helsinki was ranked ninth among 140 cities. According to a theory presented in the 1630s, settlers from Hälsingland in central Sweden had arrived to what is now known as the Vantaa River and called it Helsingå, which gave rise to the names of Helsinge village and church in the 1300s; this theory is questionable, because dialect research suggests that the settlers arrived from Uppland and nearby areas. Others have proposed the name as having been derived from the Swedish word helsing, an archaic form of the word hals, referring to the narrowest part of a river, the rapids.
Other Scandinavian cities at similar geographic locations were given similar names at the time, e.g. Helsingør in Denmark and Helsingborg in Sweden; when a town was founded in Forsby village in 1548, it was named Helsinge fors, "Helsinge rapids". The name refers to the Vanhankaupunginkoski rapids at the mouth of the river; the town was known as Helsinge or Helsing, from which the contemporary Finnish name arose. Official Finnish Government documents and Finnish language newspapers have used the name Helsinki since 1819, when the Senate of Finland moved itself into the city from Turku; the decrees issued in Helsinki were dated with Helsinki as the place of issue. This is; as part of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, Helsinki was known as Gelsingfors in Russian. In Helsinki slang, the city is called Stadi. Hesa, is not used by natives of the city. Helsset is the Northern Sami name of Helsinki. In the Iron Age the area occupied by present day Helsinki was inhabited by Tavastians, they used the area for fishing and hunting, but due to a lack of archeological finds it is difficult to say how extensive their settlements were.
Pollen analysis has shown that there were cultivating settlements in the area in the 10th century and surviving historical records from the 14th century describe Tavastian settlements in the area. Swedes colonized the coastline of the Helsinki region in the late 13th century after the successful Second Crusade to Finland, which led to the defeat of the Tavastians. Helsinki was established as a trading town by King Gustav I of Sweden in 1550 as the town of Helsingfors, which he intended to be a rival to the Hanseatic city of Reval. In order to populate his newly founded town, the King issued an order to resettle the bourgeoisie of Porvoo, Ekenäs, Rauma and Ulvila into the town. Little came of the plans as Helsinki remained a tiny town plagued by poverty and diseases; the plague of 1710 killed the greater part of the inhabitants of Helsinki. The construction of the naval fortress Sveaborg in the 18th century helped improve Helsinki's status, but it was not until Russia defeated Sweden in the Finnish War and annexed Finland as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland in 1809 that the town began to develop into a substantial city.
Russians besieged the Sveaborg fortress during the war, about one quarter of the town was destroyed in an 1808 fire. Russian Emperor Alexander I of Russia moved the Finnish capital from Turku to Helsinki in 1812 to reduce Swedish influence in Finland, to bring the capital closer to Saint Petersburg. Following the Great Fire of Turku in 1827, the Royal Academy of Turku, which at the time was the country's only university, was relocated to Helsinki and became the modern University of Helsinki; the move helped set it on a path of continuous growth. This transformation is apparent in the downtown core, rebuilt in the neoclassical style to resemble Saint Petersburg to a plan by the German-born architect C. L. Engel; as elsewhere, technological advancements such as railroads and industrialization were key factors behind the city's growth. Despite the tumultuous nature of Finnish history during the first half of the 20th century, Helsinki continued its steady development. A landmark e
Panama Canal
The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean. The canal is a conduit for maritime trade. Canal locks are at each end to lift ships up to Gatun Lake, an artificial lake created to reduce the amount of excavation work required for the canal, 26 m above sea level, lower the ships at the other end; the original locks are 34 m wide. A third, wider lane of locks was constructed between September 2007 and May 2016; the expanded canal began commercial operation on June 26, 2016. The new locks allow transit of larger, post-Panamax ships, capable of handling more cargo. France began work on the canal in 1881, but stopped due to engineering problems and a high worker mortality rate; the United States took over the project in 1904 and opened the canal on August 15, 1914. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut reduced the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, enabling them to avoid the lengthy, hazardous Cape Horn route around the southernmost tip of South America via the Drake Passage or Strait of Magellan.
Colombia and the United States controlled the territory surrounding the canal during construction. The US continued to control the canal and surrounding Panama Canal Zone until the 1977 Torrijos–Carter Treaties provided for handover to Panama. After a period of joint American–Panamanian control, in 1999, the canal was taken over by the Panamanian government, it is now operated by the government-owned Panama Canal Authority. Annual traffic has risen from about 1,000 ships in 1914, when the canal opened, to 14,702 vessels in 2008, for a total of 333.7 million Panama Canal/Universal Measurement System tons. By 2012, more than 815,000 vessels had passed through the canal, it takes 11.38 hours to pass through the Panama Canal. The American Society of Civil Engineers has ranked the Panama Canal one of the seven wonders of the modern world; the earliest mention of a canal across the Isthmus of Panama occurred in 1534, when Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ordered a survey for a route through the Americas that would ease the voyage for ships traveling between Spain and Peru.
Such a route would have given the Spanish a military advantage over the Portuguese. In 1668, the English physician and philosopher Sir Thomas Browne speculated in his encyclopaedic endeavour Pseudodoxia Epidemica - "some Isthmus have been eat through by the Sea, others cut by the spade: And if policy would permit, that of Panama in America were most worthy the attempt: it being but few miles over, would open a shorter cut unto the East Indies and China". In 1788, American Thomas Jefferson Minister to France, suggested that the Spanish should build the canal since it would be a less treacherous route for ships than going around the southern tip of South America, that tropical ocean currents would widen the canal thereafter. During an expedition from 1788 to 1793, Alessandro Malaspina outlined plans for its construction. Given the strategic location of Panama and the potential offered by its narrow isthmus separating two great oceans, other trade links in the area were attempted over the years.
The ill-fated Darien scheme was launched by the Kingdom of Scotland in 1698 to set up an overland trade route. Inhospitable conditions thwarted the effort and it was abandoned in April 1700. Numerous canals were built in other countries in the late early 19th centuries; the success of the Erie Canal in the United States in the 1820s and the collapse of the Spanish Empire in Latin America led to a surge of American interest in building an inter-oceanic canal. Beginning in 1826, US officials began negotiations with Gran Colombia, hoping to gain a concession for the building of a canal. Jealous of their newly obtained independence and fearing that they would be dominated by an American presence, the president Simón Bolívar and New Granada officials declined American offers; the new nation was politically unstable, Panama rebelled several times during the 19th century. Another effort was made in 1843. According to the New York Daily Tribune, August 24, 1843, a contract was entered into by Barings of London and the Republic of New Granada for the construction of a canal across the Isthmus of Darien.
They referred to it as the Atlantic and Pacific Canal, it was a wholly British endeavor. It was expected to be completed in five years. At nearly the same time, other ideas were floated, including a canal across Mexico's Isthmus of Tehuantepec. Nothing came of that plan, either. In 1846, the Mallarino–Bidlack Treaty, negotiated between the US and New Granada, granted the United States transit rights and the right to intervene militarily in the isthmus. In 1848, the discovery of gold in California, on the West Coast of the United States, created great interest in a crossing between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. William H. Aspinwall, the man who won the federal subsidy for the building and operating the Pacific mail steamships at around the same time, benefited from this discovery. Aspinwall's route included steamship legs from New York City to Panama and from Panama to California, with an overland portage through Panama; the route between California and Panama was soon traveled, as it provided one of the fastest links between San Francisco and the East Coast cities, about 40 days' transit in total.
Nearly all the gold, shipped out of California went by the fast Panama route. Several new and larger paddle steamers were soon plying
Carnival Cruise Line
Carnival Cruise Line is an international cruise line with headquarters in Doral, Florida. Its logo is the funnel like the funnels found on their ships, with red and blue colors; the funnels are shaped like a whale's tail. Carnival is the largest cruise line in the world, based on passengers carried annually, annual revenue, total number of ships in fleet. Carnival is one of ten cruise line brands owned by the world's largest cruise ship operator, the American-British Carnival Corporation & plc. In 2018 Carnival Cruise Line was estimated to hold an 8.9% share of cruise industry revenue and 22.0% of passengers. It is the largest fleet in the Carnival group; the ships fly flags of convenience. Its headquarters are in Miami, the United States; the North American division of Carnival Corporation has executive control over the corporation and is headquartered in Doral, Florida. Carnival Cruise Line was founded in 1972 by Ted Arison. To finance the venture, Arison turned to his friend Meshulam Riklis, who owned Boston-based American International Travel Service.
Arison and Riklis set up the new company as a subsidiary of AITS. AITS was to promote the new venture. In 1974, due to regulatory issues, Riklis sold AITS's interest in the company to Arison for $1, but subject to Arison taking over the substantial company debts; the split enabled Arison to enter into new relationships with independent travel agents. He promoted his cruises to fun-loving younger people; the format was successful financially. Until 1975, the line consisted of the Mardi Gras. In 1975 another ship was acquired, the Carnivale. In 1996, Carnival Destiny of 101,000 GT became the largest passenger ship in the world at the time and first to exceed 100,000 tons. In 2001, Robert H. Dickinson President and CTC, participated in a BBC documentary, Back To The Floor. Dickinson went to work at the lowest crew levels on the MS Imagination in the Caribbean, where he shadowed a Romanian cleaner, Alina. In 2004, Carnival Corporation ordered for a development program for Carnival's new ships, the Pinnacle Project, calling for a 200,000 GT prototype, which would have been the world's largest cruise ship at the time.
The ship was cancelled and after that they came up with a project called Next Generation. In 2009, Carnival released their biggest ship at the time, the Carnival Dream, a new 128,000 GT ship. Carnival Dream entered service on 21 September 2009. After several voyages in the Mediterranean, she was set to offer weekly Caribbean cruises from Port Canaveral from 5 December 2009. A sister ship, Carnival Magic, debuted on 1 May 2011. On 1 December 2009 it was announced, it entered service in June 2012 and its homeport is now Galveston. On May 10, 2010, Carnival selected a name for their new Dream-class vessel in 2012 - Carnival Breeze. On 26 October 2012, it was announced that Carnival had ordered a brand new 133,500 GT ship for their Carnival Cruise Line brand; this ship, built by Fincantieri, was the largest ship they have built. It sailed its maiden voyage on May 1, 2016; the new ship was named Carnival Vista. In January 2017, Michael Thamm was appointed CEO of Carnival Asia to oversee operations in China and the surrounding region.
A sister to Carnival Vista, Carnival Horizon, joined the fleet with their inaugural voyages from Trieste and Barcelona, Spain on May 1, 2016 and April 2, 2018, respectively. Queen Latifah is the Godmother of Horizon for its christening in New York on May 23, 2018. Carnival Panorama is set to join the fleet in December 2019. In February 2018, the company's officials unveiled a major port development project in Ensenada, Mexico. In 2016, Carnival extended their contract with Port Everglades cruise port to 2030; the port began a $54 million renovation in anticipation of the deal. The agreement brings over $200 million in personal income. In 2018, Carnival brought the Carnival Fantasy to Alabama. Economists anticipate an increase in tourism to revenue at an estimated $35 million; the company has been paying wages under $1.50 per hour to employees with low-to-nonexistent benefits, such as holidays or minimal vacations. Monthly salaries of the high-paid workers are around $1,300. Employees report strenuous working conditions such as 14-hour shifts with no days off.
Retirement benefits were revoked in October 2013. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, three of the Carnival cruise ships were chartered by the United States government for six months to serve as temporary housing until the houses can be rebuilt. After being chartered for six months, their planned voyages were cancelled, passengers were refunded. Holiday was docked in Mobile and Pascagoula, Ecstasy and Sensation were docked at New Orleans, Louisiana; the six-month contract cost $236 million. The contract was criticized, because the vessels were never utilized, Carnival received more money than it would have earned by using the ships in their normal rotation. Since 2017, Carnival Cruise Line has been on probation, after having been found to "illegally dumping oil into the ocean from its Princess Cruises ships and lying about the scheme." Carnival Cruise Line had to pay a $40 million fine. By 2019, the US prosecutors found that "ships have dumped gray water into Alaska’s Glacier Bay National Park, prepared ships in advance of court-ordered audits to avoid unfavorable findings, falsified records and dumped plastic garbage into the ocean."
Carnival Cruise has acknowledged these incidents. As a result, a US federal Judge "threatens to stop Carnival ships from docking in US." See al
Call sign
In broadcasting and radio communications, a call sign is a unique designation for a transmitter station. In the United States of America, they are used for all FCC-licensed transmitters. A call sign can be formally assigned by a government agency, informally adopted by individuals or organizations, or cryptographically encoded to disguise a station's identity; the use of call signs as unique identifiers dates to the landline railroad telegraph system. Because there was only one telegraph line linking all railroad stations, there needed to be a way to address each one when sending a telegram. In order to save time, two-letter identifiers were adopted for this purpose; this pattern continued in radiotelegraph operation. These were not globally unique, so a one-letter company identifier was added. By 1912, the need to identify stations operated by multiple companies in multiple nations required an international standard. Merchant and naval vessels are assigned call signs by their national licensing authorities.
In the case of states such as Liberia or Panama, which are flags of convenience for ship registration, call signs for larger vessels consist of the national prefix plus three letters. United States merchant vessels are given call signs beginning with the letters "W" or "K" while US naval ships are assigned call signs beginning with "N". Both ships and broadcast stations were assigned call signs in this series consisting of three or four letters. Ships equipped with Morse code radiotelegraphy, or life boat radio sets, Aviation ground stations, broadcast stations were given four letter call signs. Maritime coast stations on high frequency were assigned three letter call signs; as demand for both marine radio and broadcast call signs grew American-flagged vessels with radiotelephony only were given longer call signs with mixed letters and numbers. Leisure craft with VHF radios may not be assigned call signs, in which case the name of the vessel is used instead. Ships in the US still wishing to have a radio license are under FCC class SA: "Ship recreational or voluntarily equipped."
Those calls follow the land mobile format of the initial letter K or W followed by 1 or 2 letters followed by 3 or 4 numbers. U. S. Coast Guard small boats have a number, shown on both bows in which the first two digits indicate the nominal length of the boat in feet. For example, Coast Guard 47021 refers to the 21st in the series of 47-foot motor lifeboats; the call sign might be abbreviated to the final two or three numbers during operations, for example: Coast Guard zero two one. Aviation mobile stations equipped with radiotelegraphy were assigned five letter call signs.. Land Stations in Aviation were assigned four letter call signs; these call signs were phased out in the 1960s when flight radio officers were no longer required on international flights. USSR kept FRO's for the Moscow-Havana run until around 2000. All signs in aviation are derived from several different policies, depending upon the type of flight operation and whether or not the caller is in an aircraft or at a ground facility.
In most countries, unscheduled general aviation flights identify themselves using the call sign corresponding to the aircraft's registration number. In this case, the call sign is spoken using the International Civil Aviation Organization phonetic alphabet. Aircraft registration numbers internationally follow the pattern of a country prefix, followed by a unique identifier made up of letters and numbers. For example, an aircraft registered as N978CP conducting a general aviation flight would use the call sign November-niner-seven-eight-Charlie-Papa. However, in the United States a pilot of an aircraft would omit saying November, instead use the name of the aircraft manufacturer or the specific model. At times, general aviation pilots might omit additional preceding numbers and use only the last three numbers and letters; this is true at uncontrolled fields when reporting traffic pattern positions or at towered airports after establishing two-way communication with the tower controller. For example, Skyhawk eight-Charlie-Papa, left base.
In most countries, the aircraft call sign or "tail number"/"tail letters" are linked to the international radio call sign allocation table and follow a convention that aircraft radio stations receive call signs consisting of five letters. For example, all British civil aircraft have a five-letter call sign beginning with the letter G. Canadian aircraft have a call sign beginning with C–F or C–G, such as C–FABC. Wing In Ground-effect vehicles in Canada are eligible to receive C–Hxxx call signs, ultralight aircraft receive C-Ixxx call signs. In days gone by American aircraft used five letter call signs, such as KH–ABC, but they were replaced prior to World War II by the current American system of civilian aircraft call signs. Radio call signs used for communication in manned spaceflight is not formalized or regulated to the same degree as for aircraft; the three nations curren
