The (International) Radiotelephony Spelling Alphabet, commonly known as the NATO phonetic alphabet, is the most commonly used spelling alphabet around the world.

The 26 code words correspond to 26 letters one by one. They are: Alfa, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliett, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whiskey, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu. And each letter has a corresponding signal flag representing a message. Between ships at sea, signal flags are used to stand for letters in order to spell out words.

When this flag for letter A appears alone on board a ship, it means “Divers down”.

As for other three, “My engines are going full speed astern” is the message for letter S, “Man overboard” is for letter O, and “I wish to communicate with you” is for letter K.

More Info: www.nomadsailing.co.uk