Coalition Warship ??

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earlybird

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Saturday, pm. in the Clyde. There was a VHF conversation between a yacht and a vessel identifying herself as "Coalition Warship", and demanding 600 yards clearance.
I've never heard this description before. What does it imply?
The voice was very "English", but I'm fairly sure it wasn't Dave, (or Nick).
 
Does seem a bit strange. It seems to be the callsign of choice in the Gulf of Aden, where it makes sense as a warship of the international anti-piracy coalition. Not sure what coalition would be referred to off the Clyde.

Pete
 
earlybird said:
Saturday, pm. in the Clyde. There was a VHF conversation between a yacht and a vessel identifying herself as "Coalition Warship", and demanding 600 yards clearance.
I've never heard this description before. What does it imply?
The voice was very "English", but I'm fairly sure it wasn't Dave, (or Nick).
Click to expand...

Naval exercise going on - expect more off this for the next 10 days or so.

The call sign "coalition warship" usually used by ships on anti-piracy ops in the Indian Ocean.
 
Exercise "Joint Warrior"... a large NATO sea and air force's exercise starting in the Clyde every April and October and eventually ending up off Cape Wrath.......a real pain in the arse for me doing my day job........here is one of the NOTAM's warning of interesting activity in the Clyde area on Tuesday..
Q) EGPX/QWELW/IV/BO/W/000/015/5545N00515W005
B) FROM: 11/10/04 13:00C) TO: 11/10/04 18:00

E) EXER JOINT WARRIOR 112. ROYAL NAVY WARSHIP WILL CONDUCT SMOKE SCREEN
TRIALS. WILL TAKE PLACE WI 5NM OF 5545N 00515W. CTC 01329 335122
11-10-0165/AS 4

LOWER: SFC
UPPER: 1500FT AMSL
H5099/11
 
Why do they never bother to post warnings about these events-for me it probably means having my house shaken by low flyng jets at all hours. Hope they know that our missle defence system has grown a few more feet since last year-that is a giant redwood which stands mid glen!
It can be amusing sometimes-once had a Hunter Killer sub visit Rothesay for Christmas-after having spent Christmas open for visitors and a Christmas tree picked out in Fairy lights on its conning tower it scared us all to death by purging its boilers in Rothesay Bay!!
Then there was the Trident that kept breaking down-it used to get as far as little Cumbrae and have to be "tugged " back to Faslane.
Best sight when I lived on Canada Hill Bute was the task force circa 1996 heading I cannot remember where but in full naval convoy down the Clyde-it woke us early morning-destroyers;subs;carriers;tankers;Marine landing catermarans/base ships and helicopter escorts.
Then from the sublime to the ridiculous-Tridents were a regular sight from our kitchen window but on this occasion the spitting image of a WW2 U boat-recall it was an Argentinian Navy sub 1950s vintage visiting Faslane!
But beware one thing everyone-they will as usual be jamming GPS! and trying to interfere with any other electronic system they can.
At least they dont use live ammunition.-never forget once holidaying just south of Cape Finisterre and witnessing a Spanish Navy excercise complete with bofors guns and anti aircraft missles-scary!
 
Lady Campanula said:
"Coalition Warship, this is Sailing Yacht Cantankerous. I am exercising my right of innocent passage and am under sail.

In accord with the International Rules For Prevention of Collision At Sea, kindly keep clear of me by at least 600 metres.

Out."

;)
Click to expand...

Hehehe.

<reaches over to bookshelf>
<Sod that, finds the .pdf † >

<hoists Uniform Whisky Unaone>

<watches for Uniform Whisky Novanine>

(I know that "Innocent Passage" doesn't quite apply to British Ships (see MSA95 postings Ad nauseam...) in British Territorial Waters, but let's not miss the chance to start another flags thread ;-)

† http://www.dr-belair.com/dic/Defence/Sea-Forces/Sea-flags/ICOSbook.pdf
 
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Twister_Ken said:
Last year there was an itsy-bitsy grey patrol boat anchored off Stokes Bay. Came up on AIS as "Coalition Warship". There are estate agents from Basingstoke driving around in bigger mobos.
Click to expand...

Twister Ken,

if it's the same small grey patrol boat I'm thinking about, I suspect it's an export job with some attributes, such as very very high speed & stealth which thankfully most mobo's can't claim !

I wonder if the AIS refers to its' intended destination - likely - or someone had the idea of a suitably vague description...
 
Seajet said:
Twister Ken,

if it's the same small grey patrol boat I'm thinking about, I suspect it's an export job with some attributes, such as very very high speed & stealth which thankfully most mobo's can't claim !

I wonder if the AIS refers to its' intended destination - likely - or someone had the idea of a suitably vague description...
Click to expand...

Didn't look stealthy to me. Nor new. And it was either RN or a member of the RYS.
 
We picked that up on Saturday pm heading frrom Ardrossan to Portavadie - looked like it was the Caledonian Isles they were telling to stay away !

You would think there is enough water for them to do excercises outwith Ferry routes !

CG were also trying to find "any military vessels" in Kilbrannan sound on Sunday morning after they received two 999 calls reporting "smoke & flames" on the west side of Arran.

They appeared to get no response and at one stage were aking the Clonaig ferry to keep an eye out for anything untoward.

I picked up one half of the end of a message later on along the lines of "next time could you inform us in advance please" :-)
 
starboard said:
E) EXER JOINT WARRIOR 112. ROYAL NAVY WARSHIP WILL CONDUCT SMOKE SCREEN
TRIALS. WILL TAKE PLACE WI 5NM OF 5545N 00515W. CTC 01329 335122
11-10-0165/AS 4
Click to expand...

This possibly explains the CG call on VHF 16 on Saturday afternoon to HMS Dasher (by name).
CG wanted to know if a report of a white smoke near Holy Island could be down to military activity. It was.
Dasher's anonymity blown... and someone hasn't been paying attention to advisories.
 
Gordonmc said:
This possibly explains the CG call on VHF 16 on Saturday afternoon to HMS Dasher (by name).
CG wanted to know if a report of a white smoke near Holy Island could be down to military activity. It was.
Dasher's anonymity blown... and someone hasn't been paying attention to advisories.
Click to expand...

There was an exchange on the radio on Sunday between H.M.S. Gloucester - I think - and a yacht off Davaar Island in which the warship informed us all that she was operating in conjunction with a submerged vessel and would the yacht keep clear.
 
Eastbrae said:
We picked that up on Saturday pm heading frrom Ardrossan to Portavadie - looked like it was the Caledonian Isles they were telling to stay away !

You would think there is enough water for them to do excercises outwith Ferry routes !

CG were also trying to find "any military vessels" in Kilbrannan sound on Sunday morning after they received two 999 calls reporting "smoke & flames" on the west side of Arran.

They appeared to get no response and at one stage were aking the Clonaig ferry to keep an eye out for anything untoward.

I picked up one half of the end of a message later on along the lines of "next time could you inform us in advance please" :-)
Click to expand...

Back in the old days the ferries used to be part of the game, especially for perisher running. I was surprised they did not fit an RN radio on the Lion
 
Great fun with them on the Clyde off Largs yesterday afternoon - they were being "chased / ambushed" by 15 large high speed RIBS - with the warships zig zagging at high speed to throw them off. This happened with 4 warships (only one being a UK one) as they sailed out of the Clyde over 2/3 hours. The guys in the RIBs were actually being paid to do - what a living - "toys for boys" came to my mind as I watched.
 
earlybird said:
Saturday, pm. in the Clyde. There was a VHF conversation between a yacht and a vessel identifying herself as "Coalition Warship", and demanding 600 yards clearance.
I've never heard this description before. What does it imply?
The voice was very "English", but I'm fairly sure it wasn't Dave, (or Nick).
Click to expand...

As I understand it the term 'Coalition Warship' is only supposed to be used when operating with ships of foreign Navy's. When on there own they use the ships name to ID.
They seem to do similar with AIS but it seems they often forget to update it.
Makes no odds as they transmit there MMSI anyway, so its not hard to ID them.
 
earlybird said:
Saturday, pm. in the Clyde. There was a VHF conversation between a yacht and a vessel identifying herself as "Coalition Warship", and demanding 600 yards clearance.
I've never heard this description before. What does it imply?
The voice was very "English", but I'm fairly sure it wasn't Dave, (or Nick).
Click to expand...

What happens if the VHF is not heard?
 
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