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 N appears alone on board a ship, it means “No (negative)”.

As for other three, “You are running into danger” is the message for letter U, “I have a pilot on board” is for letter H, and “Require assistance” is for letter V.

More Info: www.nomadsailing.co.uk