Each sound has its own meaning, from honors to on-board activities
(by correspondent Domenico Palesse) The white uniforms, lined up next to each other. A series of whistles in a time that seems to be suspended. Everything on board stops, motionless. Noises give way to silence. The only one who is allowed to ‘speak’ is the sea, which caresses the hull with its waves while the crew pays homage to the authorities who get on or off the ship. A solemn, timeless moment, which the Amerigo Vespucci has the ability to amplify, with its wooden gangways, shining brass and the majesty of masts and sails.
The “ceremonial” involves different numbers and types of sounds based on the authority. And so the “four to the band” is ordered for officers up to the rank of captain of a vessel, while the highest honors (“eight to the band”) are reserved for the national flag, heads of state or fallen soldiers. A custom, that of the trills of the whistle, which once served to call the number of sailors who would have to go down to the band (i.e. the handrail of the brandish, the entrance ladder to the ship) to illuminate the passage with their lanterns at authority. The number of lanterns was higher based on the rank, and therefore seniority, of the authority who, therefore, would have needed more light to reach the ship.
Whistling on board military ships is a tradition that has its roots in past centuries when the only way to communicate was through the sound of a whistle, capable of overcoming the noise of the wind during navigation. An instrument in the shape of a small iron pipe, with a hole in the top through which to modulate the tone of the whistle. Every helmsman has one, his inseparable traveling companion that he jealously guards and then passes on, perhaps one day, to a young cadet.
But to ‘blow’ the whistle you need experience and skills that mature over the years. An art codified through a real score on which future helmsmen practice, guided by what is considered the “conductor of the orchestra”, the boatswain. On the Vespucci there are 85 helmsmen, five of whom are women, and they make up about a third of the crew. Considered the custodians of the art of seafaring, they are in charge of operations on board, including knots, ropes, sails and bridges. They know every corner of the ship, every secret of a sailing ship like that of the Navy. Each operation on board has a distinctive whistle, a command to be performed only by listening to a sound. “It was the only way in the past to be able to ‘talk’ to each other without being overwhelmed by the wind – says the boatswain of the Vespucci, Luca Zanetti -. We are so used to using whistles that we are able to recognize a helmsman simply by the tone of his whistle “. And there is someone on board who is also preparing a musical work, exclusively for whistles.